December 18, 1972. Joe Biden, the newly elected senator of Delaware, was in Washington. His wife Neilia Hunter Biden took her three children— Hunter, Beau and Naomi—to pick up a Christmas tree when a tractor hit the car. Hunter woke up with his brother lying next to him in hospital “like he’s just been clobbered in a playground brawl, mouthing ‘I love you’ over and over again”. Forty-one years later, Beau—Hunter’s best friend and soulmate—succumbed to brain cancer at 46.
The story of the devastating loss that the family carries in their hearts has always been central to understanding President Joe Biden. Beautiful Things is that story through the eyes of Hunter; of a family as American as apple pie coping with tragedies and shaped by the gigantic hole left by them. Hunter, who was attacked viciously during the presidential campaign, has chosen to come clean in this moving book.
The book is an unsparing, honest look at Hunter’s life. “I’ve bought crack cocaine on the streets of Washington, DC, and cooked my own inside a hotel bungalow in Los Angeles,” he writes. “I’ve been so desperate for a drink that I couldn’t make the one-block walk between a liquor store and my apartment without uncapping to take a swig.”
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 27, 2021-Ausgabe von THE WEEK.
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William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI
