The endpapers provide maps of the White House, while the front cover shows the First Couple’s heads in beaming clinch. On the back they’re walking from a well-lit room into a dark hallway, eyes down, mouths somber.
The iconography that frames Jodi Kantor’s “The Obamas” is as curious as her tale of Barack and Michelle’s first 1,000 days: a mix of personal and political, of diary and elegy that assays “the impact of their partnership ... on the presidency, the job of first lady, and the nation.”
