Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now

Evan Osnos

Oct 2020 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

*A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR*
A concise, brilliant, and trenchant examination of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s successful lifelong quest for the presidency by National Book Award winner Evan Osnos.

President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been called both the luckiest man and the unluckiest—fortunate to have sustained a fifty-year political career that reached the White House, but also marked by deep personal losses and disappointments that he has suffered.

Yet even as Biden’s life has been shaped by drama, it has also been powered by a willingness, rare at the top ranks of politics, to confront his shortcomings, errors, and reversals of fortune. As he says, “Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.” His trials have forged in him a deep empathy for others in hardship—an essential quality as he leads America toward recovery and renewal.

Blending up-close journalism and broader context, Evan Osnos, who won the National Book Award in 2014, draws on nearly a decade of reporting for The New Yorker to capture the characters and meaning of 2020’s extraordinary presidential election. It is based on lengthy interviews with Biden and on revealing conversations with more than a hundred others, including President Barack Obama, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and a range of activists, advisers, opponents, and Biden family members.

This portrayal illuminates Biden’s long and eventful career in the Senate, his eight years as Obama’s vice president, his sojourn in the political wilderness after being passed over for Hillary Clinton in 2016, his decision to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency, and his choice of Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Osnos ponders the difficulties Biden faces as his presidency begins and weighs how a changing country, a deep well of experiences, and a rigorous approach to the issues, have altered his positions. In this nuanced portrait, Biden emerges as flawed, yet resolute, and tempered by the flame of tragedy—a man who just may be uncannily suited for his moment in history.

Ratings and reviews

I wonder if he hand rubbed the spine of each book as he whispered soft praises in its ears and read the teleprompter telling him what to "write" in this book. 1/5 would fall asleep on the job again. Amazing that all but one positive review is fake.

He is wired like a tree from the people backing him, and he didmt do his job when in senate or as vice president, what makes think he will do better as president?

Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now is a page turner, I finished it in 2 nights. It's a quick read because it is extremely well-written and because Joe Biden is such a compelling figure. I laughed out loud in parts, and I sobbed like a baby in others. Evan Osnos captures the real Joe Biden, flaws and all. I learned a lot in this book. I really got to know who Joe Biden is by reading this book, and I feel relieved that we will once again have a President who has compassion, competence and humility. Now that he's our President-elect, I think everyone should read it. You'll get a fair and balanced view of Joe and his family in this book. I am going to be giving it out as gifts to my best friend and my mom for Christmas. If you have friends who are interested in politics, then this would make a great holiday gift. My mom sent out over 100,000 texts for Biden, and I know she will love reading this book. If you worked for change in this election, put this book on your list. If you have a family member who is worried about a Biden presidency, give them this book to set their heart at ease. Some biographies are dry, but not this one. Evan Osnos paints a picture of Biden's life that's vivid, balanced and entertaining.

About the author

Evan Osnos has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2008. His most recent book, Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury, was a New York Times bestseller. He is also the author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, which won the National Book Award. Previously, he was a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, where he shared two Pulitzer Prizes. He lives with his wife and children near Washington, DC.