Beautiful Things is the memoir of President Biden’s younger son, Hunter Biden. As someone who dreamed of being a writer or an artist before dutifully going to law school and pursuing a career in business and lobbying.

I wasn’t interested in Joe Biden’s crack-addicted son until after reading a Washington Post story that suggested his paintings were a blatant influence-peddling scheme. I went to the gallery site and was impressed with his art. I happen to love abstract art and his work seems worth the amount it’s selling for (far less than the first WP story.) According to the conspiracy theory, a Trump-donating gallery-owner has agreed to launder money for a Democratic president through his son. Still, despite the ranting about his paintings, you cannot deny how good they are.

I decided to read his memoir after he showed up at the Contempt of Congress hearing they held to decry him for not showing up while he sitting right there. That took guts. He made me laugh, so I read his memoir.

He had me right from the prologue. Not only does he write well, he is surprisingly frank about how deep his addiction dragged him, wandering through homeless encampment in the night, digging the plastic bottle insert out of a bottle of vodka so he can pour it down his throat faster. He makes no effort to clean up his story to make it more politically palatable. Addiction is ugly and he spoke the ugly truth.

Losing the people you love is ugly, too, and he shared his grief and bewilderment, particularly in losing his brother Beau who survived, with Hunter, the famous car accident that killed his mother and sister. Beau’s cancer was a harsh and omnipotent opponent and Beau and Hunter went through it together. Hunter doesn’t blame his addiction on losing Beau, but it had to serve as some sort of catalyst.

But the title is Beautiful Things and he tells us how he and Beau grew up, the great and boundless love from their father and extended family, and how he and Beau were as close as people can get. He writes that he once told his father, “I don’t know if I should be grateful or angry at you for making us all love each other so much.” He wrote about feeling guilty when people offered comfort when they may have experienced similar losses without the privilege and resources he had. He said:

Pain is our universal condition. People can go through life without finding love, but no one lives for long without experiencing real hurt. It can connect us or it can isolate us. I vacillated between the two.

Wow! I didn’t expect to see something so true, but seldom expressed. I did not expect to find quotes to highlight because they were profound. That’s the strangest thing about Beautiful Things. This is no failson or nepo baby memoir filled with self-pity. I challenge you to find self-pity anywhere.

Beautiful Things is an extraordinary memoir. Biden makes no effort to clean up his image. He explains why Burisma hired him and it’s the dullest chapter. He does not write about the infamous laptop other than mention how it being weaponized by despicable people gave him confidence. After all, if they are against him, he must be on the right side.

I was curious where he got the guts to sit there in the House of Representatives meeting room with such calm equanimity. Where did he find that center that kept him from collapsing under such a sustained attack? I mean, think about it. A recently recovering addict is being reviled in the press and in Congress by people who want him to relapse to use as a cudgel to beat his father. Where’s Hunter. He’s right here.

He’s an artist now and a writer, exactly what he wanted to be back in college.

Beautiful Things at Gallery Books | Simon and Schuster
Hunter Biden – his art work at Berges Gallery

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Loss, Addiction, Redemption (Hopefully)

Over the last few years of white hot rampaging politics few individuals have been maligned as much as Hunter Biden. In fact, so intense and distorted has his portrait been painted that the public would not know, unless they took the time to dig behind the lurid headlines, how educated and accomplished is Hunter, even while alternating between wallowing in and fighting against alcohol and crack cocaine additions. This memoir puts things on a more even keel, ends on a high note of hope, and leaves sympathetic readers hoping he has finally found the wherewithal to stay sober.

Three things standout in this harrowing recounting of his life to date.

First and foremost is the hell of addiction. Hunter details the addict’s life with painful fierceness. He provides readers with a real-life window into just how addiction takes over and controls a life to the point where nothing matters more than satisfying the habit. Most people have never suffered from addiction and so have little idea of how it can run and ruin your life. Yet, understanding the overpowering nature of substance abuse has never been more important with drug addiction and subsequent death rampant in this country. These folks aren’t a bunch of lowlifes; these people are your friends and neighbors who for various personal reasons get caught up in a spiral sometimes leading to death but always leading to ostracism. Hunter’s recounting presents you with an opportunity to feel what it is like without yourself getting addicted.

Second is the pain of loss. Sometimes unless you have lost someone especially close and meaningful to you, grief over an extended time might strike you as an indulgence. Hunter and Beau Biden were as close as if they were twins, and his description of them as boys and men joined together is a beautiful thing to behold. You get the sense that few relationships could bear up to that Hunter enjoyed with his brother, and you can appreciate how Beau’s early death could send Hunter into a death defying tailspin.

Third is the importance of family, especially a strong and patient father. Hunter’s story isn’t just about Hunter but about a family that despite how low he sunk stood by him, never rejected him. Most of all, it’s about a father’s love, true love for a prodigal son, a son who often put the father’s career in jeopardy. There are no saints in this world but given a choice who would not chose a father like Joe Biden? If you like Joe, you’ll like him even more after reading Beautiful Things. If you were lukewarm about him, you may find yourself actually liking, especially if you ask and honestly answer the question: could I have shown as much strength?

This memoir is worth your time for these reasons, as well as how Hunter Biden faces up to and tells his story frankly and honestly.
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Loss, Addiction, Redemption (Hopefully)

Over the last few years of white hot rampaging politics few individuals have been maligned as much as Hunter Biden. In fact, so intense and distorted has his portrait been painted that the public would not know, unless they took the time to dig behind the lurid headlines, how educated and accomplished is Hunter, even while alternating between wallowing in and fighting against alcohol and crack cocaine additions. This memoir puts things on a more even keel, ends on a high note of hope, and leaves sympathetic readers hoping he has finally found the wherewithal to stay sober.

Three things standout in this harrowing recounting of his life to date.

First and foremost is the hell of addiction. Hunter details the addict’s life with painful fierceness. He provides readers with a real-life window into just how addiction takes over and controls a life to the point where nothing matters more than satisfying the habit. Most people have never suffered from addiction and so have little idea of how it can run and ruin your life. Yet, understanding the overpowering nature of substance abuse has never been more important with drug addiction and subsequent death rampant in this country. These folks aren’t a bunch of lowlifes; these people are your friends and neighbors who for various personal reasons get caught up in a spiral sometimes leading to death but always leading to ostracism. Hunter’s recounting presents you with an opportunity to feel what it is like without yourself getting addicted.

Second is the pain of loss. Sometimes unless you have lost someone especially close and meaningful to you, grief over an extended time might strike you as an indulgence. Hunter and Beau Biden were as close as if they were twins, and his description of them as boys and men joined together is a beautiful thing to behold. You get the sense that few relationships could bear up to that Hunter enjoyed with his brother, and you can appreciate how Beau’s early death could send Hunter into a death defying tailspin.

Third is the importance of family, especially a strong and patient father. Hunter’s story isn’t just about Hunter but about a family that despite how low he sunk stood by him, never rejected him. Most of all, it’s about a father’s love, true love for a prodigal son, a son who often put the father’s career in jeopardy. There are no saints in this world but given a choice who would not chose a father like Joe Biden? If you like Joe, you’ll like him even more after reading Beautiful Things. If you were lukewarm about him, you may find yourself actually liking, especially if you ask and honestly answer the question: could I have shown as much strength?

This memoir is worth your time for these reasons, as well as how Hunter Biden faces up to and tells his story frankly and honestly.
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Autobiographies can't really be judged. A touching story of love and loss, and drugs. A lot of drugs. Biden describes rather honestly how rough (but also at times great) drugs can be. ( )

The son of now President Joe Biden, Hunter and his brother Beau were one year and one day apart. They survived a tragic car accident. They survived, but their baby sister and mother did not. They were going to buy a Christmas tree. Hunter was two years old at the time of the accident. He and his older brother spent long days and nights holding each others hands in the hospital while recovering.

The bond with his brother was exceedingly strong. He was at Beau's side with his father holding his brother's hand as he slipped out of this world because of brain cancer. His brother was 46, leaving behind a wife and two beautiful children.

A strong friend of alcohol since a young child, he increasingly solidified this relationship as he got older. His brother helped him by attending AAA meetings with him.

When Beau died, each family member, while strong in their love for each other, struggled to find meaning. Clinging to the word Beautiful to describe Beau's character and bond with many.

Hunter rekindled his love of alcohol, and when he spun out of control, his wife divorced him. He temporarily lost the relationship with his three daughters. Now, he added another addiction, this time crack cocaine became his obsession.

This is the unflinching story of his sharp ugly descent into a helpless embracing of a life so different from his family that he hid from embarrassment, and an inability to kick the love of the feel of the pipe, and the sharp feeling of euphoria could temporarily put his pain of defeat and pain of the loss of everything good in his life.

The writing is vivid and his description is not pretty as he slips further and further into one hit and then another and another. He spares nothing in describing he bowels of hell with crack. This was at times, a very difficult book to read.

Highly recommended. ( )