by Amy Chozick
First published 2018
Amy Chozick begins this memoir as a young New York Times journalist assigned to cover Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. What starts as a political beat becomes a decade-long obsession that shapes her twenties and thirties. Chozick travels to 48 states following Clinton from her 2008 defeat through her 2016 campaign headquarters in Brooklyn. She witnesses Clinton's interactions with Donald Trump, accompanies Bill Clinton on international trips, and observes the daily machinery of presidential politics. The assignment forces Chozick to examine her own life choices about marriage and children while covering a woman navigating similar decisions in the public eye. Through years of close observation, Chozick transforms her view of Clinton from political enigma to complex individual shaped by decades of media scrutiny and political warfare. The book reveals behind-the-scenes details from both campaigns while exploring how Clinton's historic candidacy intersected with one reporter's personal journey through the most dramatic presidential election in recent American history.
Genres: american, political-science, politics, biography-memoir, 21st-century, journalism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: behind-the-scenes, personal-journey, reporter-protagonist
Setting: Brooklyn, New York
Period: 2008, 2016
382 pages · Hardcover · Harper