The Seduction of Hillary Rodham

When the book came out, it was widely criticized for not breaking any new ground. The Los Angeles Times called it "[e]xhaustive to the point of exhaustion" and "predictably critical, but unexpectedly measured, at least in comparison to what Beltway gossips anticipated."^[1] James B. Stewart for The New York Times said that Brock had "tried to do his subject justice in the broadest sense", but added that "[a]t times he goes too far," often "echo[ing] her apologists" and "dismiss[ing] or rationaliz[ing] the sometimes powerful evidence that Hillary Rodham Clinton has lied...by invoking a relativism rooted in Republican precedents."^[6]

Entertainment Weekly gave the book a 'D' (poor but not a complete failure) and said, "What could have actually been a rather poignant biography of a fascinating woman is marred by Brock's heavy reliance on previously published accounts, his leaden prose, the constant sense that he's proselytizing against Bill Clinton, and his naïveté about marriages in general and presidential ones in particular."^[5] Writing for the New York Review of Books, Garry Wills assayed that Brock's goal was to establish a premise of a President Clinton becoming into a state of being out of control with unrestrained power going into his second term in office.^[7]

Brock said that his former friends in right-wing politics shunned him because Seduction did not adequately attack the Clintons. Jonah Goldberg of National Review proposed another theory: Since "no liberal source in the world would talk to Brock," he could not collect the kind of information he was after. Goldberg also maintained that while writing the book, Brock had been "seduced" by Sidney Blumenthal, a prominent champion and friend of the Clinton circle.^[8][9] Blumenthal would remain the subject of intense attention from anti-Clintonites two decades later.^[10]

Free Press had a first printing of 300,000 copies of the book, which per The Washington Post represented three times the sales of Brock's commercially successful job on Anita Hill.^[11] Instead, The Seduction of Hillary Rodham sold very poorly; the Post characterized it as "a disaster".^[12] To illustrate, the paper reported that a Washington bookstore had only sold eight out of 30 ordered copies and a Baltimore bookstore only three out of 50.^[12] Brock has said the book sold less than half of what the Anita Hill book had,^[13] which given the Post' estimate would mean Seduction sold less than 50,000 copies.

Considering the large printing, large advance, and far-under-expectations sales, Brock has said that the book was in the fact of the matter a "commercial disaster".^[13]