Waxing ironical about your victories does not equate to introspection, as Barack Obama could have learned. In seeking vindication, Bill Clinton and David Cameron might have noted self-absorption is the enemy of self-knowledge and self-criticism. Writing a memoir therefore becomes a final chance to have the last word. Most of his counterparts, though, are surprised to find their careers end badly. Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom remains a most honourable exception. As for politicians, they cannot be trusted to describe, let alone demolish, the houses of their lives. An exiled Czech writer, Milan Kundera, reckoned "the novelist demolishes the house of his life and uses its bricks to construct another house: that of his novel".
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