June 15, 2006
Alberto Gonzales grew up in Humble, TX, in a small house his father built. About the same time, George W. Bush's family moved into a custom-built home on 1.2 acres in an upscale neighborhood in nearby Houston. It seemed unlikely that the two men's paths would converge. Texas journalist Minutaglio ("First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty") painstakingly chronicles Gonzales's methodical escape from his impoverished beginning to become first Governor Bush's general counsel, at which time a bond developed between the two men, and later Bush's White House counsel. This was followed by ascendancy as the first Hispanic U.S. attorney general. The author believes that the President may treasure Gonzales most for his innate sense of privacy and especially for the deft manner in which he helped Bush be excused from jury duty on a Texas DWI case without revealing the fact (then unknown) that Bush himself had been arrested for DWI in 1977. Minutaglio presents a balanced look at Gonzales's controversial advice to Bush regarding interpretation of Geneva Convention regulations on the torture, interrogation, and imprisonment of suspected terrorists. Minutaglio gathered information from over 200 interviews with Gonzales's friends and his government and law-firm colleagues, as well as from public records, archives, and media reports. The result is a well-researched biography that should be included in public and academic library collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/15/06.]" -Jill Ortner, SUNY at Buffalo Libs."
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