The memoir of William P. Barr, out Tuesday, spans seven decades, but is inevitably dominated in part by his two years as Attorney General under former President Donald Trump. Trump’s most ardent defenders and hardest critics will devour his account of those years. It is unlikely that it will satisfy either.

It is equally unlikely that Barr’s critics will be won over, including those who were angry at his departure from the Trump administration (late 2020) and those who were appalled at the way he got it (nominated 2018). Barr has written a letter from No Man’s Land. Barr alternates between exonerating and castigating, sounding sympathetic or exasperated. He lists Trump’s offences, but casts him as the latest victim to dishonest media and the “radical Left.” Barr reports that Trump had “lost his grip” at the end Trump’s term and had become “manic, unreasonable”, and “off the tracks,” according to Barr. He also heeded the advice of “whack job” Barr believes Trump could have won 2020 with a “minor adjustment in his behaviour” and he wishes that he had. Barr’s title, One Damn Thing After Another : Memoirs Of An Attorney General, quotes a predecessor’s summary of the job. It could not have been more tempestuous than Barr’s. This tempest is not over. Barr will not be returning to Trump’s good graces by writing a book that dismisses doubts regarding the 2020 election as unfounded (using a term that refers to barnyard excrement). Barr will not be invited to Mar-a-Lago, arguing that the Republican Party should have a new leader in 2024. Barr calls Trump “puerile” at various points and laments his “frequent pettiness, overly contentious style” and refers to Trump as “puerile”. He says that it took him a lot of energy and blood to keep Trump on track. He also noted that Trump often treated people like “utensils” while he “often seemed to have no regard for the accuracy his statements.” He still believes Trump is more trustworthy than the media who are subject to some of Barr’s most vicious denunciations. Barr maintains that Trump could have produced a more constructive, problem-solving style government if he had been shown some good faith by the other side. Barr claims that Trump has a “deep intuitive understanding of the importance religion plays in the health and well-being of our nation” and that he saw himself as defending the Constitution and traditional American values against the increasingly totalitarian attacks by the radical wing the Democratic Party. There is a lot of damnation in One Damn Thing After Another. Much of it is directed at the tone and tenor of American culture today. He insists that the framers believed democracy could only be successful in a country that is “religious, moral” — which Barr clearly doesn’t believe can be true morality without being religious.

Barr resigned from the ship he had volunteered to serve. This was during the dark and turbulent period following the November 2020 election when Trump was recruiting every part of government he could to fight for the election results. Barr recalls that he was told by the FBI and Justice Department that there was no evidence of substantial fraud. Trump had lost. Trump was furious at this, but the tie between them was really torn after Barr said the exact same thing to The Associated Press. Barr claims that he met with Trump and offered to resign. Trump then slapped the table and shouted, “Accepted!” Barr claims he left the White House on that day, only to be hailed at the driveway and dragged back the two Trump’s top aides. Barr’s resignation was accepted and negotiated a few days later. After being confirmed in early 2019, Barr was appointed to the top job as Justice’s attorney general. This came shortly after Trump fired Jeff Sessions, an ex-senator from Alabama. Sessions, who was the first senator to endorse Trump, was dissatisfied when he refused to fire or interfere with Robert Mueller, the former director of the FBI, who was appointed to investigate Russian interference in 2016’s presidential election. Barr was still a private citizen when he entered the fray. In June 2018, Barr sent a 19-page memo urging the Justice Department to reprimand the Russia probe and to appoint a special counsel.

This memo was secret because Barr was not a retired lawyer. He had previously served as attorney general under a Republican administration. This unusual memo was not only noticed by a few, but it was also used as a job application. Trump fired Sessions that fall and appointed Barr in his place. Mueller finished his report within a short time and submitted it to Barr as required by his appointment. Barr was able to describe the report before the media and anyone else had seen it. He also took this opportunity to give his own spin to two years of work done by Mueller and his team. Mueller’s report contained voluminous evidence of Russian interference as well as numerous instances of what appeared like obstruction of justice by the president. It did not find evidence that there was a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump’s campaign. Barr read this as an exoneration. Trump called it “a complete exoneration.” Barr’s description would be quickly challenged by Mueller, who said it “didn’t fully capture the context nature and substance of the investigation.” Mueller repeatedly pointed out that a Justice Department policy from the 1970s had prevented him from considering criminal charges against the president while he was in office.

Barr was subject to months of controversy for his handling of Russia, which he still refers to as “the Russia hoax” in this memoir. He also defends Trump’s handling of the 2019 Ukraine episode, which led to his first impeachment. Trump had apparently withheld military aid from Ukraine in order to get that country to investigate his political enemies, including future opponent Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Barr’s steadfast defense of Trump in those cases doesn’t protect him from Trump’s fury over a related matter. Trump and his aides are furious at the pace and outcome of an FBI investigation into the FBI’s conduct at the beginning of the Russia probe. Barr had appointed a U.S. Attorney to investigate it all in 2019. Trump and many conservative media members wanted its results before the 2020 election. Barr navigates the lines between warring factions with the skill of a skilled lawyer throughout his book. He is an expert at reading the law and finding the right information. He is also known as the legal rhetorician. He carefully interprets words to suit his purpose. He holds Trump “responsible for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, but did not “incite” them. Therefore, there is no reason to indict him. This mindset, with its show of precision and lawyerly care, will only infuriate the partisans from either side, who just want him to kill the enemy. This is not just “another Trump Book” Despite Trump’s recurring and animating presence, it is not “another Trump Book”. It is not a rant against Barr’s adversaries, although large parts of it are. This is not a Barr book. It is an autobiography that has many facets. He relates his memories of the hardships faced by immigrant grandparents, his academic career and his childhood devotion to the bagpipes. It is clearly a success story for America, as Barr clearly views it. The book’s feel-good parts give way to more controversial parts of Barr’s personal history. These include his bitter recounting of the campus protests that disrupted him student days at Columbia University in late 1960s. Barr was part of a group that occupied campus buildings in 1968 to resist the Vietnam-war protestors. This was clearly a pivotal moment in Barr’s political development and determination. Barr recalls being in a fight on campus but “situated at the rear of a big soccer player who performed with such incredible proficiency that I never had any other to do but shove people.” As Barr thrashes and snarls through his personal history, that image may linger in the mind of the reader as a metaphor. Barr shares his successful career and how he was drafted high in the lottery, then joined the CIA in 1970s.

Barr, who works for the agency while he attends law school, gets to know George H.W. Bush. Bush will become vice president a few years later. In 1991, Bush, still only 41, will appoint Barr as attorney general. Barr recalls several times his association with Bush in this memoir. He defends him and declares him a martyr in the media battles. Barr’s relationship with Trump is characterized by loyalty, defensiveness, and anger. His frustration stems largely from the belief that Trump was more sinful than he sinned. While Barr may believe that, many readers will focus on the sins. Barr’s most convincing argument is when he explains how Trump’s misguided focus on his own grievances has cost him good candidates and essential momentum over the past years and into the future.