Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 24, 2025

The ugly truths in Hunter Biden's book 'Beautiful Things'

The ugly truths in Hunter Biden's book 'Beautiful Things'

When Joe Biden was vice president, and was mourning the death of his older son Beau, he was also trying to keep his younger son Hunter alive.

That's one of the many takeaways from Hunter's book "Beautiful Things," which comes out on Tuesday.

Many people have already made up their minds about Hunter, and others aren't interested in knowing anything more, but I think his first-hand account of drug addiction, tabloid culture and political craziness is incredibly informative. It's one of those "you think you know, but you have no idea" types of stories.

For example, Hunter's big paychecks for sitting on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma? He reveals that "Burisma turned into a major enabler" of his "steepest skid into addiction" by providing cash for all the crack cocaine.

This is not the way we're used to reading about a child of the president. Hunter's accounts of drunken benders and crack-fueled odysseys are downright scary. And his recollections of his brother -— "wish you could've known Beau" — are sorrowful.

So far most of the book reviews have been quite positive. Publishers Weekly says his "courageous self-assessment makes the despair of substance abuse devastatingly palpable." Books Mark has other reviews here. Like Entertainment Weekly's Seija Rankin, I was struck by the scenes that involved his dad: "The result is, purposeful or not, a portrait of our current President as the ultimate Patriarch."

It's also a portrayal of addiction as "really the great equalizer in this country," as CNN's Kate Bennett told me after we both read the book. "It's the one thing that really brought President Biden to his knees." Read Bennett's assessment here.

'Where's Hunter?'


Chapter after chapter puts the "Where's Hunter?" heckling into an entirely new context. Some of the book's boosters, like Stephen King, have appropriated it to promote "Beautiful Things." King wrote: "Where's Hunter? The answer is he's in this book, the good, the bad, and the beautiful."

But the scrutiny of what pro-Trump media shouters sometimes call the "Biden crime family" continues to this day, and Hunter acknowledges it in the book.

Regarding his Burisma role, which was at the heart of President Trump's first impeachment, he writes, "I did nothing unethical, and have never been charged with wrongdoing. In our current political environment, I don't believe it would make any difference if I took that seat or not. I'd be attacked anyway. What I do believe, in this current climate, is that it wouldn't matter what I did or didn't do. The attacks weren't intended for me. They were meant to wound my dad."
Still, he says, in retrospect, for optics reasons, he wouldn't take the board seat again.

Here's where Hunter is


Hunter appeared on "CBS Sunday Morning," then Monday's "CBS This Morning" and NPR's "Morning Edition." He also taped an in-depth interview for Marc Maron's podcast. Maron said in his intro that he viewed Hunter as "a whipping boy by the right wing press" and wasn't very interested in talking to him. But then he read the book and wondered about what it's like to be caricatured and demonized: "How does a human, let alone a drug addict trying to stay clean, deal with that?"

Later this week Hunter will be on the BBC and on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," but he seems to be avoiding more overtly political and partisan spaces. Fox talks about him practically every hour, but there's no word of a Hunter book interview on Fox, nor do I think there will be.

After the CBS interviews, "Beautiful Things" broke into the top 10 on Amazon's best sellers list.

Shining a light


Hunter told NPR's Scott Simon that "truly the reason I wrote the book" is that "it'll give hopefully some people hope. Give them some hope that they don't have to remain locked in that prison. And I don't just mean the people that are stuck at the bottom of the well like I was, but the people that stand at the top of that well and realize unless we go down with the lantern, he's never going to find his way out. But that's a dark and dangerous journey for them. And it was for my family. But their light was never not seeking me out. Never a moment, never a moment that they weren't trying to save me."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC Demands Perplexity AI Immediately Stop Using Its Content
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
Political Turmoil Resurfaces in Belgium Amid Economic Concerns
Fed policymakers divided on timing of interest rate cuts
Trump signals imminent agreement with Harvard University
Inheritance tax referendum alarms Swiss billionaire community
Japan cancels bilateral security meeting amid US defence demands
AI skeptic Emily Bender warns that ‘the emperor has no clothes’
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
×