It's no secret if you know me even a little but I actually like HRC. I think she is far from perfect but I like her. I voted for her. I campaigned for her. My son and I went to a rally in NH and were on the stage behind her. And I cried when she lost.
But I am also fascinated by her, well not just her, but the way some people love her and others think she is The Antichrist. I am amazed at the double standard that surrounds everything she does...for example all the outrage over her standing by her husband when he was President and the affair with Lewinsky was exposed and yet now the current Idiot-In-Chief pays off a porn star to keep their affair secret, is accused by well over a dozen women of sexual assault, bragging about trapping women by the pussy, and yet listen do you hear it? No, because there is no outcry for his wife to leave him, and as a matter of fact the Christian right wants him to have understanding and a mulligan.
Ok, enough ranting, my review of the book.
It read very conversationally and I enjoyed it. I cried at a few parts reliving election night and seeing my children cry as the results came in. I was angry at reliving the mess the press made of the coverage. I think she made mistakes along the way, but to me she has in the past, and more so in this book, claims full responsibility for her own choices. She owns the fact that there were times the advice she was given was not what she felt right following but that she did it anyway, sometimes because she allowed herself to be convinced and at others because she was trying to avoid being the annoying and overly opinionated woman. She talks about how she would do things differently, how she did what she thought best at the time, and how she knew it other things were mistakes but she doubted herself and what the outcome was.
And in light of the current news these past couple of days, weeks, and months, some of what she writes is now coming all to true and there is a damn we should have listened to her feeling....
I enjoyed when she writes about her daughter and grandchildren, you can feel her humanity, love, and a lightness and joy jumping off the page. When she writes about her marriage you can feel her love and her frustration at the pain and the way people want her to rip her scabs off for them.
All of this to say that she writes in a more folksy way then she presents as a candidate but that makes a lot of sense. She is a policy wonk with a sharp brain and great ideas and it why she was a great Secretary of State, Senator, First Lady, advocate but why she wasn't a great candidate...as she says she was more interested in getting down to the business of serving and governing and the running part was hard for her...and really given how she has been treated over the years, can we really blame her for being careful with her answers and words? Words have power and when you slip and the world never lets you live it down you learn to be more and more careful and guarded....but she shines on the page here, she feels alive and warm and human...even when I found myself disagreeing with her I found myself liking her more.
(Finished February 2, 2018)
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