The first quarter of the book highlights McCain's father and grandfather's extraordinary naval careers. His account of his own time at Annapolis is entertaining, although there's much less real "hell-raising" than he initially leads you to believe. (Example: contraband TV hidden in the wall.) His recounting of his time as a POW dominates the last half of the book. Senator McCain goes out of his way to describe the courage of his fellow POWs, and insists again and again that they were more brave and suffered more atrocities than he did.As for an earlier reviewer's contention that McCain is unfair to Vietnam, I disagree. He seems to feel little if any bitterness towards the country and people of Vietnam. He even compliments a certain region as being a good vacation spot -- remarkable considering he spent 5 years being ceaselessly tormented by his captors in unimaginably bad conditions.
McCain's character is astonishing. Sentences like "I spent the next three months in solitary confinement" compress 90 days of agony into just 9 words. Other writers, perhaps, would write a whole book just about those 3 months. Instead, McCain concentrates on the thoughts and men who helped him through those five years.
As far as the writing itself goes, McCain's facility with language could stand to some improvement. Sometimes sections don't flow together well, or you wonder if you're missing the big picture. This is especially true in the middle-third of the book. His retelling of his namesakes' exploits are interesting and occasionally gripping, but his account of his early years leave you wondering about certain issues: how did he deal with his father's absence, why did he always rebel, how did he treat plebes after his mistreatment at the Academy, etc. He touches on these matters, but doesn't explore them in depth. I think it would have rounded out our picture of McCain the young man.
I also wished there was some discussion of the beginning of his political career, but I guess that can be found in (a) the "American Odyssey" biography, or (b) a possible second memoir.
Finally, in the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I am as liberal as they come, and rarely agree with McCain politically. But, whatever your persuasion, this book is an interesting read, and you can't help but admire McCain's extraordinary courage and integrity.
