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* I received an advance review copy from a friend a few weeks ago and I have to say that whether or not you're a Hillary fan - "Unlikeable" is as compelling as author Edward Klein's previous two examinations about the Clintons - or more to the point - his examinations of the Clintons' RELATIONSHIPS with other big wheels in Washington. Because other readers have already written summaries about what Hillary - according to Klein - is all about, I'll focus on just two (2) of the many takeaways I got from this book. * 1 of 2) - As a journalist, I ask again - how much of Klein's work is true? However objectionable it is that most of Klein's sources are anonymous - I reach the inescapable conclusion that the more unflattering assertions against Hillary are highly placed and credible members of the Democratic Party. Why? Because it's hard to believe any GOP operative could poach incendiary word-for-word conversations between the Clintons and others - without being physically in the same rooms. The irony is much of the inflammatory material in "Unlikeable" appears - to me, anyway - to be coming NOT from right-wing partisans - but from satellite extensions of the Clintons themselves. * And the elephant in the room that bolsters Klein's credibility - is that Klein himself, a self-admitted JFK fan and a former editor at Newsweek, Vanity Fair and the New York Times Magazine - has never been successfully sued for libel - nor have any of his books been successfully discredited as being loaded with patent lies. If untrue, there would be more than enough to warrant the Clintons suing Klein and his publishers for libel. But it hasn't happened (yet), dating back to Klein's first book about Hillary in 2005. (In Journalism 101 we're taught that Truth is the best defense against libel - and that public figures like Hillary must prove malice - AND - that blatant untruths have been printed which have caused irreparable harm.) * If you're a Hillary fan, you have every right to regard "Unlikeable" as tabloid filth, but that's an opinion, not a fact, framed by what you bring to the table. When the same type of books are written about GOP figures, your emotions may provide a better sense of what I'm talking about. * 2 of 2) - At this snapshot in time - the most "contemporaneously relevant" slice of material in this more than 250-page book has to do with the controversy over Hillary's decision to install a private email server when she was U.S. Secretary of State from 2009 to early 2013. Without apology or qualification, Klein asserts that President Obama - and key members of his administration - explicitly warned Hillary to not do it, despite her paranoia about snooping enemies resulting from her many years as a public figure. * I admit I do get the feeling that the President's closest personal adviser, Valerie Jarrett, has a key role in campaign and policy strategy, including the release of adverse information against Hillary. Nothing gets by her and this might explain, 1) why so many "insiders" were willing - (or got permission) - to air the Clintons' dirty laundry to Edward Klein, and, 2) why the President's own administration - (and not some right-wing conspiracy) - is more responsible for the FBI's investigation of the email server issue - to proceed without obstruction. When the heat turned up against Hillary, she asked the President to help, i.e., to "call off his dogs." According to Klein, the President turned Hillary down. * In sum, "Unlikeable" may be a lot of things, but it is not boring, Based on what was revealed previously about the sour relations between the Clintons and the Obamas in Klein's "Blood Feud" (2014) - the behind-the-scenes narrative remains unchanged. It's true that millions love and admire Hillary Clinton outside of Washington. But inside the Beltway, she is feared and resented by enough people at the highest reaches of the Democratic Party - adding another layer of woe on top of the antipathy she has long gotten from the GOP. She might still get the White House because of the fracturing of the GOP, even though Vice President Joseph Biden appeared to have less baggage being his authentic self, e.g., the same guy in public and private, untouched by scandals, real or imagined, a loyalist to the President in ways that Hillary was not.