Decoding the Hillary persona

Is she a consummate, capable stateswoman ready for the most powerful job in the world, or a polarising, manipulative politician who should be kept away from it? Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton may have legions of devoted admirers as well as fierce detractors but there can't be many who can ignore her. Her fate will soon be decided by Democratic voters and, if successful, then the US electorate, but till then the debate has spilled over into the literary world with a spate of works dissecting her antecedents, ability and performance.

Clinton has been in the public gaze for nearly four decades now, right from when her husband, Bill Clinton, became Arkansas governor in 1978, and held the post (with a two-year gap) till elected US president in 1992. After an over two-decade long stint as First Lady at the state and national level, she carved out her own political career as a senator from New York and then presidential contender in 2008. She then began a role as a stateswoman, accepting her successful rival Barack Obama's offer to join his administration as its top diplomat the third woman to hold the post in a little over a decade.

After one eventful term, she bided her time before again entering the fray for the White House in 2016. Her own take on her life can be found in her autobiographies "Living History" (2003) and "Hard Choices" (2014) about her stint as Obama's Secretary of State, but it has also inspired nearly 100 books, ranging from sympathetic portrayals to polemical attacks, from 'tell-all' accounts of former associates to scholarly analyses, satirical fiction and even a children's colouring book.

The leanings of most of the works can be made out from their titles. What are we to make out of these - and many more like them? Should we believe that Clinton has a good record of public life, is well-suited to be the next president of the US but is being demonised, or is she just another overly ambitious and unscrupulous politician who must be exposed? There are some books that are neither enthusiastic hagiographies nor unrestrained diatribes, but present a picture in all its positive and negative aspects.

Among the latest is Karen Blumenthal's "Hillary" (2016). The author, whose previous works include a biography of Steve Jobs and of Walmart founder Sam Walton, focusses on aspects that moulded Clinton's thoughts and how these influenced her personal and public life. Kim Ghattas' "The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power" (2013) combines the Lebanese-born BBC correspondent's own story with accounts of several important foreign trips she accompanied Clinton on and a keen insight into the reality and limitations of American power.

To get a feel of how of those not favourably disposed look, Daniel Halper's "Clinton, Inc: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine" (2014) is illustrative, with its recital of a long list of innuendos and claims.