Book Review: Hope Rides Again: An Obama Biden Mystery, by Andrew Shaffer (2019)

The cover of Hope Rides Again, by Andrew Shaffer, 2019.

Author Andrew Shaffer

Andrew Shaffer’s 2018 novel Hope Never Dies imagined Barack Obama and Joe Biden teaming up to a solve a murder. In the 2019 sequel, Hope Rides Again, Obama and Biden once again combine forces to solve a crime. While the first book took place in Biden’s home state of Delaware, Hope Rides Again is set on Obama’s turf—Chicago. 

Hope Rides Again simply isn’t as funny as its predecessor. All the jokes about Biden being old, clueless and out of touch just aren’t as funny now that he’s on the campaign trail and has seemed, well, old, clueless and out of touch. 

While I was happy that Hope Never Dies took a (relatively) realistic view of the plot, as opposed to just being completely over the top, I found myself wanting Hope Rides Again to be more over the top. The idea is a ridiculous one to begin with, so why not just make it completely bonkers? Although Hope Rides Again does get points by allowing Biden to get behind the wheel of a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. (Minus points for making Obama ride in the back seat, because too many people would recognize him.) 

There’s a lot of earnest speechifying in Hope Rides Again. Take this example by Obama:

“It’s time to go. It’s been a long day for all of us. And to be fair to Pastor Brown, you and I don’t know Chicago like he does. I’ve been gone a long time. Neighborhoods change; people change. Some things, however, remain the same. This is a dangerous town. It’s gotten better, but it’s no Mayberry. Even if we solve this case, it won’t stem the flow of guns into the city. It’ll ease our minds, but not a damn thing more.” (p.184) 

Sure, that sounds reasonably like something Barack Obama would say, but there are just too many times in the novel when characters enter that kind of didactic mode. The plot, centering as it does around a young African American male getting shot in Chicago, is pretty depressing. 

There are still some laughs to be found in Hope Rides Again, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much as Hope Never Dies.

Book Review: Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery, by Andrew Shaffer (2018)

The awesome cover of Hope Never Dies, by  Andrew Shaffer, 2018. Sadly, Joe Biden doesn't drive a t-top 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am in the novel.

Author Andrew Shaffer.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden, best buddies.

Are you sick and tired of the current political situation in the United States? Are you nostalgic for the time when Barack Obama was President, Joe Biden was Vice President, and they would go out for ice cream together? If you answered yes to both those questions, I have the perfect book for you: Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery, by Andrew Shaffer. 

In Hope Never Dies, Joe Biden is adjusting to life as a former Vice President when suddenly a longtime Amtrak conductor turns up dead on the railroad tracks. Uncle Joe starts poking around, and eventually gets his friend, former President Barack Obama, involved as well. 

As they did in real life, the fictional Biden and Obama make a good team—Barack is cool and cerebral, Joe is relaxed and shoots from the hip, following his gut. Shaffer writes the book in first person, from Biden’s point of view, and he does a good job at capturing Biden’s stream of consciousness thoughts. As Biden confides to us: “I had something of a reputation for being loose-lipped.” (p.74) 

The plot doesn’t really matter, as it’s all an excuse for us to enjoy seeing Obama and Biden together again, even if it’s only in fictional form. One highlight is Biden waxing poetic about getting to fire up his 2017 Dodge Challenger, with Obama in the passenger’s seat. 

Shaffer has a difficult needle to thread in Hope Never Dies. Should the book feel real, or should it be insanely over the top? Shaffer largely goes for realism, which I think is the better choice. (Although the novel does feature a dream sequence in which Obama is riding a unicorn.) 

Two critiques I have about the book: there are way too many “Joe is a really old guy!” jokes. We know, the guy turned 76 the year Hope Never Dies was released. But he didn’t step in from 1973 on a time-traveling Amtrak train, for crying out loud. (Okay, that sounds like a great idea for a novel: time-traveling Joe Biden! Hoping that the next leap will be the leap home.) He knows that people take selfies! He knows people other than sailors have tattoos! 

My second critique is that there’s just too much material about Biden feeling mopey that Obama hasn’t been hanging out with him enough. It’s just a standard buddy-film trope that gets too much ink here. Hopefully the second Obama Biden Mystery, 2019’s Hope Rides Again, remedies this and just has Barack and Joe being best buds from page one. Because honestly, that’s what we all want. We don’t want Joe moping around about his feelings; we want happy Joe and Barack going out for ice cream.

Book Review: Becoming, by Michelle Obama (2018)

Cover of Becoming by Michelle Obama (2018)

Michelle and Barack Obama, definitely the coolest First Couple ever.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming, is surely the most personal book ever written by a First Lady. On every page Obama’s voice rings out with authenticity, and she writes with appealing candor about her life story. 

Becoming is split into three parts, the first covering her life before she met Barack Obama, the second covering their lives before he became President, and the third covering their eight years in the White House. All three sections are fascinating. Obama paints a vivid picture of her childhood and upbringing on the South Side of Chicago. Her parents, Fraser and Marian Robinson, gave her stability and a strong moral compass. They worked hard to provide her with as many opportunities as they could. And Michelle took full advantage of those opportunities, as she excelled at school and attended Princeton University and then Harvard Law School. 

Obama then chronicles her relationship with a hotshot young lawyer who was a summer associate at the firm she was working at. Michelle was assigned to mentor this guy with the unlikely name of Barack Hussein Obama, who showed up late to his very first day at the firm. It was fascinating for me to read about the Obamas’ courtship, and to imagine them as two young lawyers, from very different backgrounds and upbringings, but both striving to make a difference in the world. These chapters made both Barack and Michelle feel more human and relatable to me.

While reading Becoming I was struck again at how rapid Barack Obama’s political rise was. He went from winning his first election to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 to winning the presidency twelve years later. Reading Becoming gives you a sense for how challenging every new step was for Michelle, as she adjusted to having Barack gone so much of the time. 

Barack Obama’s political rise always leaves me with a little feeling of “what might have been.” Not for his own political career, but for mine. In the spring of 2003 I was a senior at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. I was a Political Science major, and the President of the Knox College Democrats. I had volunteered and interned for several local political campaigns and I knew the chair of the county Democratic Party. I would periodically get emails about this guy who was running for the U.S. Senate. He had a really odd name. I don’t think he ever came to Galesburg, but he would campaign in the Quad Cities and Peoria, both about 45 minutes away from Galesburg. I never went to any of his campaign events. Of course, that guy running for the U.S. Senate was Barack Obama. In an alternate universe, where I wasn’t as fed up with politics, I would have met him at one of these events, stayed in Illinois after graduation to work for him, and then become his Chief of Staff or something when he became President. Then I would have written my memoir and would now be a talking head on CNN. 

It didn’t happen that way. I didn’t attend any of Barack Obama’s campaign events, so I never met this up and coming politician. I moved back to Minneapolis after I graduated in June of 2003, and my public introduction to Barack Obama was the same one that many Americans had: his stirring keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I was on a road trip with my Dad, and I remember watching that speech with him and thinking, “Wow, this guy could be President someday.” At some point after Obama’s speech, I remembered that he was the guy with the odd name who had been running for the U.S. Senate in 2003. But I digress. 

Becoming gets a little rushed during the Obama’s eight years in the White House, but that’s understandable, since Michelle could have written an entire book that only focused on those eight years. One thing that comes through strongly in Becoming is Barack and Michelle’s devotion to making sure their daughters Malia and Sasha had as normal a childhood as possible while living inside the fishbowl of the White House. 

Becoming is a fascinating look at Michelle Obama’s life, and the memories it brings of the Obama administration serve as a welcome antidote to the current administration.

Book Review: Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, by Joe Biden (2017)

Book cover of Promise Me, Dad, by Joe Biden, 2017.

Joe Biden, Vice President from 2009-2017.

In December, I heard former Vice President Joe Biden speak at the Orpheum Theatre about his new book, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose. It was an emotional evening, as Biden spoke about his son Beau’s death from brain cancer. That’s the main subject of Promise Me, Dad, but readers also get glimpses into Biden’s duties as Vice President, and Biden’s thinking as he ultimately decided not to pursue the Democratic nomination for President in 2016.

Promise Me, Dad is that very rare thing—an amazingly honest book written by a national politician. But then I think Joe Biden is an amazingly honest person. What you see is what you get with him. Promise Me, Dad is also a very moving book. Biden clearly had a very close relationship with Beau, and I can’t imagine how hard it was for him to watch Beau slowly be weakened by an awful disease. Even though there was little hope, Beau Biden signed up for every experimental treatment that was out there, hoping for a miracle. 

The book also sheds light on Biden’s relationship with Barack Obama, and it becomes clear that they developed a very close friendship. As Biden said about the memes that celebrate his friendship with Obama, “They’re basically all true.” However, Biden originally told Obama no when Obama wanted to vet him for Vice President. When Biden was very close to saying yes to the Vice Presidency, he said to Obama, “I want to be the last guy in the room on every major decision. You’re President. I’m not. I get it. But if it’s my experience you’re looking for, I want to be the last guy to make the case.” (p.64) 

One of the best anecdotes in the book is Biden’s meeting with Vladimir Putin. This was during the period when Putin was Prime Minister, rather than President, due to term limits. As they were meeting in Putin’s office, Biden turned around and was suddenly face to face with Putin. He said, “Mr. Prime Minister, I’m looking into your eyes. I don’t think you have a soul.” Putin replied, “We understand each other.” (p.95) 

A key passage in Promise Me, Dad, is when Biden describes his own political philosophy: “I believe all politics is personal, because at bottom, politics depends on trust, and unless you can establish a personal relationship, it’s awfully hard to build trust.” (p.129) Biden demonstrates that again and again in the book, as he details his relationships with foreign leaders, and his attempts to build trust with them. 

Will Joe Biden run for President in 2020? He’ll be 77 years old in 2020, and 78 years old on January 20, 2021—that’s older than Ronald Reagan was when he left office in 1989. But you never know, and as Promise Me, Dad shows, Joe Biden is a man who just keeps going when he’s facing adversity.