Some sloppy or biased WSJ editor headlined Peggy Noonan's review of Woodward's State of Denial "The Boring Fabulist." I'd link to the review but because it's behind the WSJ paid subscription wall, here's the salient paragraph:
"Now he has thwarted me. I bought “State of Denial” thinking I might have a merry time bashing it and a satisfying time defending the innocent injured.
But it is a good book. It may be a great one. It is serious, densely, even exhaustively, reported, and a real contribution to history in that it gives history what it most requires, first-person testimony. (It is well documented, with copious notes.) What is most striking is that Mr. Woodward seems to try very hard to be fair, not in a phony “Armitage, however, denies it” way, but in a way that — it will seem too much to say this — reminded me of Jean Renoir."
In short, it's a rave -- and headline is just weird.
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