Immense

Here's the first bit of good news regarding Edmund Morris' book on Theodore Roosevelt's presidency, "Theodore Rex": There's no imaginary narrator. You might recall that Morris used one in his biography of Ronald Reagan, and he received a great deal of criticism for it. In fact, he's still trying to defend the literary technique today; he did so in a recent interview on C-SPAN.

Here's the second bit of good news: "Theodore Rex" probably is worth your time if you have much of an interest in the subject.

Morris wrote the acclaimed "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" before the Reagan book, and that covered TR's early years leading up to the McKinley Assassination. I haven't read that one yet, but I'm sure "Theodore Rex" follows in those footsteps quite nicely. This planned trilogy certainly figures to be the last word on this charismatic President, and this second book on the Roosevelt Presidency is exhaustive in its research.

Obviously, Morris has a great subject. Roosevelt took over the office of President in his early 40's, full of vigor and enthusiasm. The number of different subjects that interested him was almost Jeffersonian in nature. This unique personality may have been an accidental President at first, but he grabbed on to the reigns of power like no one before him and changed the concept of the Presidency in the process.

Roosevelt's list of accomplishments are impressive: the Panama Canal, anti-trust legislation, conservation, a Nobel Peace Prize -- all just for starters. He's not up on Mount Rushmore for nothing, and he certainly ranks as one of our greatest Presidents. What's interesting about that ranking is that Roosevelt did not come into office into troubled times, like so many of the other great Presidents (Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt, etc.) He was one of the few men in which you could say the man made the times rather than the other way around.

As you could imagine if you looked at the small text on the 555 pages, Morris does something close to a play-by-play of the almost eight years of the Roosevelt Administration here. The big issues are covered pretty clearly, and a sense of the force of Roosevelt's personality comes across well. Roosevelt's family, particularly his wife, gets a little left out here, perhaps because Morris' wife wrote a book on Edith Roosevelt that came out right about the time this one did.

I particularly liked the way Morris pointed out that one of Roosevelt's central qualities, surprisingly enough, was a sense of balance. He knew its importance in public affairs, so he wanted labor and management to not have a big advantage over the other, and he wanted the world's powers to be roughly equal in military might. It's an important clue to his personality.

So, if this book has so many good qualities, why does it only get four stars? It gets two slight demerits from the average reader's perspective.

One, Morris tries awfully hard to be clever and literate at times. You'd have to understand a few different languages to get all of the references made. I'm not going to quote one - trust me, you wouldn't get it anyway - but it tends to bring the reader's progress to a crashing halt.

There's also the matter of the level of information for a particular reader. This is as dense a biography of Roosevelt as you are going to see. While that will be a selling point to some, the more casual reader may find this a lot to plow through. And I would guess that a few people might be tempted to give up early on, particularly before Morris seems to find a writing rhythm.

Still, it's difficult to judge Morris too harshly for writing a book that reads like it was written about a man who just left office, rather than one who left almost 100 years ago. I'm sure this trilogy will be in libraries for decades. If you have the level of interest that might attract you to such a publication, by all means jump right in. You'll find it worthwhile.