There are a lot of misconceptions about this book, so why don't you tell me how you characterize it.

I think the book works on different levels. On one level, one of the things the book does is trace a kind of shadow war that has gone on for the heart and soul of the country for 50 years or so. And it hits its battles and its flashpoints beginning with the Cold War, with communism, moving on to Joe McCarthy, civil rights, Lenny Bruce, Vietnam, the assassinations of JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the protest melee, Kent State, Hustler magazine, Nixon's removal from office, women's rights, Murphy Brown, abortion, Robert Mapplethorpe, gay rights, gays in the military, gay marriage, hate crimes, gun control, even down to Elián González.

On lighter levels, I think it's entertaining, and it takes a kind of no-holds-barred and up-close look at our politicians and public figures.

Could you define the "shadow war."

In my mind there are two countering forces in this country. On the one side you have a force that wants to make this a really inclusive society with broad horizons and a great deal of tolerance. And on the other hand I'm convinced that there are forces that believe that Norman Rockwell's America is what America should be like. And of course I'm simplifying, but within the simplification there's truth. Bill Clinton's figurative assassination was a part of this shadow war, as incidentally were the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King and Bobby and then Richard Nixon's removal from office. This war will go on and it really is a war for the heart and soul of America.

Who were you writing this book for?

I was writing it for myself primarily. I felt that I saw certain things and wanted to say certain things about the '60s, about my generation and about Bill Clinton. I went over to Maui and started thinking about my own values and about this whole notion that I had become a public figure and wasn't really writing. All of those thoughts led me to Bill Clinton, and the more I thought about him, the more I thought I understood him -- in terms of his ambition, his lubricity, his kind of Hollywood charm and certainly his absolute obsession with his own sexuality.

I began to understand that he is the first rock 'n' roll president of the United States.

Explain that.

The more I read about him, the more I studied about him -- and I became a genuine scholar in reading literally anything that had ever been written about him -- I felt that he is the prototypical rock 'n' roller of our generation. And all of that led me back to the '60s and an examination of our values, '60s values, and especially what had happened to those values as those of us of the '60s approached the age of 60.

Does that assessment of Clinton -- as the first rock 'n' roll president -- relate to his obsession with his own sexuality?

I think there is this absolute link. With me and also with many men of my generation, as we grew up, no matter what we became successful at, what we really wanted to be were rock 'n' roll stars. That was the intent. Bill Clinton in his attitude, and in the way he has carried out his presidency within the context of his personal life, is certainly a rock 'n' roll star. His attitude toward women and the way he treats women are those of the rock 'n' roll star dealing with groupies backstage, with the all the humiliation and insensitivity that entails. You know, the ultimate groupie rock 'n' roll act backstage is to kneel down and do the guy's Willard. With Monica Lewinsky, the first time she did kneel down in a groupie way, he never knew her name even, as most rock stars don't know the names of the women who do that.

Maya Angelou reads from "The Heart of a Woman"