"John Gartner's new book, In Search of Bill Clinton, will I think, help solve the riddle of the forty-second president: how a man with such superhuman talent could risk his entire life's work, as he did over Monica Lewinsky. In a wonderfully engaging quest, Gartner--a highly experienced therapist--does what no psychologist has bothered to do over the past two decades of Clinton watching: interview those who grew up with the man and have intimate knowledge of his strengths and weaknesses. Written with lucidity, humor, compassion, and amazing insight, it is a tour de force that not only helps explain one of the smartest yet complex men of our time, but shines a fascinating spotlight onto the problem of the supergifted individual in our society."

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, the fortysecond President of the United States, is the greatest American enigma of our age--a dark horse who captured the White House, fell from grace, and was resurrected as a controversial elder statesman. John D. Gartner's In Search of Bill Clinton unravels the mystery at the heart of Clinton's complex nature and tells the story from the fresh viewpoint of a psychologist questioning the well-crafted Clinton life story.

Gartner, a therapist with expertise in treating individuals with hypomanic temperaments, saw in Clinton the energy, creativity, and charisma that leads a hypomanic individual to success. In Clinton he also saw the problems with impulse control and judgment that frequently result in disastrous decision making.

Gartner knew that if he wanted to find the real Bill Clinton, he couldn't rely on armchair psychology. He had to travel to Arkansas and around the world to talk with those who knew Clinton and his family intimately. With his boots on the ground, Gartner uncovers long-held secrets about Clinton's mother--the ambitious and seductive Virginia Kelley--her wild life in Hot Springs, and the ghostly specter of his biological father, Bill Blythe, and seeks to uncover the truth surrounding Clinton's rumor-filled birth. He also considers the influence of Clinton's alcoholic stepfather, Roger Clinton, to understand the repeated public abuse the president invited both by challenging a hostile Republican Congress and by engaging in a clandestine affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Acknowledgments 

Introduction: The Puzzle 

PART I: ORIGINS

1. Like Mother, Like Son 

2. Searching for Bill Clinton's Father 

3. One in a Quadrillion 

4. The Boy Who Walked to Church Alone

PART II: ARKANSAS POLITICS

5. Three Pairs of Shoes

6. The Education of Governor Clinton 

PART III: THE PRODIGY PRESIDENT PROSPERITY AND PEACE

7. It's the Economy, Genius 

8. A Thousand Welcomes

PART IV: IMPEACHMENT-GATE

9. The Horse-Whipping

10. Monica and Bill: A Romantic Tragedy 

11. High Noon 

PART V: AFRICA: JULY 2007

12. Healing the Sick 

Epilogue 

List of Interviews 

Notes 

Index