"So Much Life" Explores What Was Missed

Would anyone care about the high times and life adventures of Pal Sarkozy, 81, if not for his son Nicolas?

The son is France's president. The father had something to do with that, but it is not exactly clear what. He makes no apologizes, but writes in his new book, Tant de Vie (So Much Life), “I was not a present father nor a grandfather who gurgles with the babies ...."

However, people do care. Enough so that they told all sorts of stories about how awful he was when he didn't need his children. So, Sarkozy the elder says he took advice from his son and wrote a book to address what he saw as the libels. He says he wrote it for his children and their children: “Today, the arrival at the port is near and I no longer have the strength to move on. This time it is I who needs you. Your presence makes me happy, your absence makes me sad.”

It is a father's poetic, heartfelt elegy for missed time. No matter what others thought, it is too bad he didn't come to that idea sooner.