What readers think of A Vast Conspiracy, plus links to write your own review.

This is not a book for the prudish.

While author Jeffrey Toobin has written a deeply researched and (in my opinion) balanced account of the two sex scandals that enveloped President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s—Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky—there is a definite "ick" factor when reading this book. Ick. Ick. Ick.

The book was published in December 1999 and in a new introduction written in January 2020, Toobin admits what many now think: "Do the lessons of the #MeToo movement change our understanding of what happened between them and how we, as a society, responded to their affair? In a word, yes." Monica was not a victim of sexual harassment as she initiated most of their encounters, including the first one, but she was a victim of the media and public opinion. And no matter what, he was a powerful man—some would say THE most powerful man in the world—and she was an unpaid White House intern at first and then a low-level federal employee at the Pentagon.

This is a historical account and legal analysis of the events that led to the unsuccessful impeachment of Bill Clinton on December 19, 1998 on grounds of perjury to a grand jury and obstruction of justice. Translation: He had a sexual relationship and lied about it.

But even more than this, it is the story of individual people—from Monica Lewinsky to Linda Tripp, from attorneys on both sides who were either defending or trying to upend a presidency under the tawdriest of circumstances, and from a president and first lady whose marriage became the brunt of gossip and late-night TV jokes.

We see people at their worst in this political soap opera that quickly turned from a civil matter to a criminal one:
--Pathetic, lovestruck, and troubled Monica
--Meanspirited, duplicitous, and angry Linda Tripp
--Greedy, foolish, and unhinged Paula Jones
--Petty, conniving, and mean Lucianne Goldberg
--Biased, wrathful, and inept Kenneth Starr
--Lothario and compulsive liar Bill Clinton
--The dawn of Internet reporting, specifically The Drudge Report
--The media that capitalized over and over on the adage that sex sells.

This is a highly readable book with fair reporting on all sides, making it an excellent historical account—except for that "ick" factor.

Ick. Ick. Ick.