A Different Drummer

"A Different Drummer: My Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan" by Michael K. Deaver; HarperCollins; 228 pages; $25.

Readers who understand what was lost by biographer Edmund Morris` bizarre botching of the unprecedented opportunity he had to provide the world insight into Ronald Reagan will recognize that history owes a debt of gratitude to Michael K. Deaver.

His latest offering is neither a biography of the former president nor a work meant to "satisfy those who want a penetrating insight into the mystery of the man," but a book of reminiscences about Reagan from his longest-serving and one-time estranged aide who hopes readers will find his anecdotes "entertaining and even enlightening at times" and that by relaying them he will "make a small contribution to understanding Reagan." Contrary to the author`s modest understatement, the book is very entertaining and very enlightening - and it is a major contribution to understanding the man.

Nancy Reagan says Deaver, her husband`s longtime friend and aide, spent more time with her husband than anybody outside his family and is one of only a handful of people who could write about the private Ronald Reagan. She says there are "few people better suited to write about him."

Deaver does a first-rate job of portraying Reagan, illustrating rather than just describing the makeup of the man, always keeping well-focused on his subject and never letting his work become, as so often happens in such reminiscences, an advocacy for the author.

The theme of "A Different Drummer" is that Reagan is a remarkable man and wonderful person, a great American president who "changed the way we thought about ourselves and the way the world looked at us" and who has left the country that he loves so dearly and so deeply "a legacy of inspiration."

This is an important book, a must-read for any fan, foe or detached historian who wishes to better understand the 40th president of the United States.

(C)Copley News Service

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Author: Fred J. Eckert