Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers

Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers
by Susan Morrison

Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers
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Book Summary Information

Author: Susan Morrison
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2008-02-01
ISBN: 0061455938
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Harper

Book Reviews of Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers

Book Review: Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary Plus One
Summary: 3 Stars

I'm betting the editors of the recently released collection of essays called Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary were assuming the presidential political landscape would look a bit different today, at least from a marketing point of view.

If the primary race was over and Hillary had become the Democratic nominee after Super Tuesday, as many expected would happen, they probably sensed that this baby would be a best-seller.

There isn't a lot that's particularly revealing about Clinton in Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary. It's more a volume of essays about how the various authors feel about her and view her in ways (usually) not covered by the main stream media.

I was a little surprised at the critical and sometimes flip tone of some of the authors. Some of the essays ponder who is the real HRC? Is she a dog person or a cat person? Is she better or worse than Lady Macbeth? What did she like to snack on in the White House?

(Can you imagine the outcry if someone had written a similar volume about any of the men candidates?)

While entertaining and well-written, I'd like to look at Hillary in a 31st way.

What would her candidacy have looked like if she hadn't married Bill?

What if she had married someone else, kept her name and was still Hillary Rodham? If we take the Bill Clinton lens off the glasses through which we scrutinize Hillary, what would an objective look at her candidacy be? I have a feeling it would be much more charitable in terms of her experience, her personality and her judgment.

To be sure, there are plenty of more serious essays in the Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary, but I was saddened that the publisher was more concerned about having people write about Hillary's hobbies, or lack thereof, than taking a real look at this woman and what has propelled her to this place in life.

No, it wasn't meant to be a biography, but when we write about women candidates in this way, do we continue to diminish them, as well as ourselves?

Summary of Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers

No other politician inspires such a wide range of passionate feelings as Hillary Rodham Clinton. As America's first viable female candidate for president, she has become the repository of many women's contradictory hopes and fears. To some she's a sellout who changed her name and her hairstyle when it suited her husband's career; to others she's a hardworking idealist with the political savvy to work effectively within the system. Where one person sees a carpetbagger, another sees a dedicated politician; where one sees a humiliated and long-suffering wife, another sees a dignified First Lady. Is she tainted by the scandals of her husband's presidency, or has she gained experience and authority from weathering his missteps? Cold or competent, overachiever or pioneer, too radical or too moderate, Hillary Clinton continues to overturn the assumptions we make about her.

In Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary, New Yorker editor Susan Morrison has compiled this timely collection of thirty original pieces by America's most notable women writers. This pointillistic portrait paints a composite picture of Hillary Clinton, focusing on details from the personal to the political, from the hard-hitting to the whimsical, to give a well-balanced and unbiased view of the woman who may be our first Madam President. Taken together, these essays—by such renowned writers as Daphne Merkin, Lorrie Moore, Deborah Tannen, Susan Cheever, Lionel Shriver Kathryn Harrison, and Susan Orlean—illuminate the attitudes that women have toward the powerful women around them and constitute a biography that is must reading for anyone interested in understanding this complex and controversial politician.

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