The Restless Wave by John McCain and Mark Salter

Title: The Restless Wave

Author: John McCain and Mark Salter

Read by:  Beau Bridges with an introduction by John McCain

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: Approximately 14 hours and 15 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster.  Thank-you!

I listened to The Restless Wave the past few weeks and wrote this review before the sad passing of John McCain this past Saturday.  I was greatly saddened by his passing.

I admire John McCain and I still wish he would have won the 2000 primary and ultimate election.  I think we would be a in a far different place in the world if he would have been running the country during 9/11, Katrina, and the economic crisis.  I like how he “straight talks” and does and says what he thinks is right for the country, even if that doesn’t always fall along party lines.  Disclaimer – I’m a moderate and don’t belong to either party.  I vote for both depending on the candidates.

I really liked the introduction that John McCain read himself.  It was a touching remembrance of visiting the Pearl Harbor memorial with veterans from that war.  Beau Bridges was the narrator for the rest of the audiobook and he did a fine job.  I liked the cadence of his voice, but I did ultimately enjoy John McCain’s voice itself for the start of the book.

I should have investigated this book more to have different expectations.  I thought it was going to be about McCain’s entire life, but it started right into the 2008 election.  It’s hard to be a loser of a race and talk about it.  Even McCain sounded like he was whining with his “it wasn’t fair!” thoughts.  I had a hard time with him saying that everyone was harder on Sarah Palin than they were on Barack Obama.  Having been an adult at that time, I remember the stupid things Sarah Palin said and remember the birthism and racism that Obama received on his side.   I did like how McCain took the stance during the election of not allowing racist talk during his campaign talks against his opponent.  I like that he stood a high moral ground and stopped a supporter when they were saying nasty things about Obama and said he was a fine man. I discovered after listening to this audiobook, that I should have listened to or read Faith of My Fathers by John McCain.  It sounds like that book goes more into his past.  I will put that on my “to read” list for the future.

I was glad when the book moved on to torture . . . although that sounds funny.  Having been a prisoner of war, McCain feels passionately about torture. I really loved how he said that to be a great country, we must stand by our ideals and should not sink to a base level.  I only wish more people believed this and implemented it.  As I listened to the audiobook I was amazed by all the great work that McCain did for this country to help us to stand by our ultimate ideals even if it meant disagreeing with Presidents Bush and Obama.  I like that he did wasn’t afraid to speak his mind to any of the Presidents.

Overall, The Restless Wave is an interesting look into John McCain’s unique perspective into politics for the past twenty years.  It ended up being a very timely audiobook for me to listen to in a sad way.  I recommend it for those looking to learn more about modern US history.