An interesting, but frustrating book. The author is a journalist, and he's very, very cautious about speculating ahead of the information he can actually confirm. This is probably good journalistic practice, but it makes a frustrating read.

The Biden family grew up in variable economic conditions (the family was apparently either pretty flush or close to broke most of the time), and the parents encouraged their kids to be assertive and to have high ambitions. The author devotes two very interesting chapters to the social and political culture of the state of Delaware (small, insular, long dominated by a few wealthy families, and now dominated by the financial industry). The "Delaware Way" appears to explain a lot about the business dealings of various members of the Biden family, since the whole system depends on personal networks and doing favors for friends. Outsiders might call it corruption.

I didn't come away with any sense of who Joe Biden is as an individual. He is very, very close to his family. He is extremely protective of his surviving son, Hunter, who has a long history of self-destructive behavior. He seems to be adept at keeping his skirts clean of any implications of shady-dealing, although his repeated insistence that he doesn't know anything about his family's business deals wears a little thin by the end of the book.

An interesting read, but it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. ( )

A fairly even-handed account of the Biden clan and of course centered on the patriarch, President Joe. A couple of obvious conclusions is the central ambition the drove Joe Biden his entire life in politics and his ultimate goal of capturing the presidency; the other the members of the clan who made their careers to cash in on Joe's political celebrity.

It is really amazing his initial breakthrough winning the senate on his first shot. But looking at the political system at play in Delaware it is really not quite amazing.

The other cast of characters his sons, brothers, and various other relatives and associates are shown to use the channels and ways of getting things done to their benefit using the political connections and winding its way through lucrative business ventures. American politics at its finest on display here.

Of course Hunter's escapades is a book in in itself. Hunter made full use of family resources to launch his career my taking a mediocre academic performance combined with a cocaine conviction to gain entry into Yale Law. From there he embarks on a dizzying array of business connections and launches with political back slapping in an attempt for find his fortune and fame and or infame.

A political spell binder read that gets uber-complicated in trying to negotiate an understanding of the complex political and business deal making. And probably that was the aim to throw out enough confusion to obfuscate the appears of corruption and what we will likely get down the road is business as ususal. ( )