Unfettered
On a crowded shelf of memoirs by sitting politicians, John Fetterman’s new book has to be one of the strangest ... Inside the book, you’ll find none of the genre’s usual tropes ... Unrelentingly dour and mournful ... Unfettered includes surprisingly little about his political positions ... The voice in this book is brooding but not particularly thoughtful. Fetterman offers generalized contempt instead of pointed arguments ... Anyone who has experienced depression will probably recognize the overgeneralization, the binary thinking, the closed loop of self-pity. At barely more than 200 pages, Unfettered is not especially long, but it starts to feel interminable.
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Candid, brave and affecting ... Exceptionally well told, enlightening and often humorous ... Unfettered is also, unintentionally, a rather persuasive argument that Fetterman may lack the fortitude, temperament and commitment to represent Pennsylvania’s 13 million residents in the U.S. Senate ... Fetterman’s candor about mental health is commendable, but using it as a shield against criticism about his political performance is not ... Frustratingly, given the times we live in and that the author is a current U.S. senator, Unfetterred is not a particularly political memoir ... Fetterman’s love for Braddock and western Pennsylvania are clear; his reasons for serving in the Senate, less so. He sounds routinely homesick. He exhibits remarkably thin skin. He admits his shortcomings late in the book and nearly halfway through his term.
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Fetterman’s belated confession does not inspire confidence that the public will receive accurate information about his health in the coming days and weeks. Nothing in Unfettered inspires confidence, really ... There is no audience for Unfettered, and I do not think Crown will get its money’s worth on this memoir ... Boring ... It is 213 pages of what the country already knows about Fetterman: that he’s driven by interpersonal grievances, insecurities, and immaturity. He’s only reflective in bouts and fits. He spends all of four paragraphs talking about Israel, even though Israel dominates his social media feed. He has very little to say about President Trump, except that he is the president and so we must respect him ... The brief portions of the book that read as genuinely emotive and contemplative...are about his childhood ... Then Fetterman slams on the gas (metaphorically, for once) and zooms past anything threatening to contradict his claim that he’s an 'authentic advocate' for regular folks ... Brief glimmers of pensiveness and introspection fully evaporate when Fetterman rehashes his career.
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