Because I appreciate a novel metaphor, here’s George Packer on Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.:
I’ve been slowly making my way through Arthur Schlesinger’s “Journals 1952-2000.†They read like the diary of a man who can’t stop cheating on his wife (liberalism and the writing of history) in a series of flings with less worthy but more exciting women (political power, celebrity, partygoing, gossip). Though he knows what he’s doing is shallow, he can’t work up much regret because he’s simply enjoying himself too much. Every now and then, there’s a night of utter self-contempt, but by morning Schlesinger is already looking forward to the next romp over Martinis in a hotel room with newspapermen and Democratic Party luminaries.
There’s a lot more. Read the whole thing.