Former US President Barack Obama delivers, in his memoirs to be published Tuesday, November 17, some impressions of his former counterparts, including Nicolas Sarkozy.
"It bulges out the torso like a little rooster," he writes of the former French president, according to short excerpts published in a New York Times review by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
More than anyone else, I wrote my book for young people — as an invitation to once again remake the world, and to bring about, through hard work, determination, and a big dose of imagination, an America that finally aligns with all that is best in us.
https://t.co/1yZrYWuckX
- Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 12, 2020
Evoking his former Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, Barack Obama recounts that, during a one-to-one meeting, the latter read documents in such a monotonous manner that he almost suggested to him "to buy both time by exchanging our documents and reading them as we please ".
The former Democratic president also sketches quick portraits of some of the Republican tenors, like Senator Mitch McConnell.
"He did more than compensate for his lack of charisma (...) with a discipline, a perspicacity and a total absence of moods which he put at the service of a cold conquest of power", he writes.
The first volume of the memoirs of the former president, entitled "A Promised Land" ("A promised land", ed. Fayard), will be published on Tuesday.
With AFP
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