First published 2006
John Dickerson grows up in the shadow of his mother Nancy, a pioneering television journalist who broke barriers as the first woman in Washington's TV news corps. Nancy covered the most significant events of the 1960s, interviewed presidents, and hosted power brokers at her Potomac estate. But John rarely sees her unless he's in trouble or checking coats at her political parties. He considers her a liar and a phony, moving in with his father after his parents divorce when he's fourteen. Years later, working as a Washington reporter himself, John begins reconnecting with his mother just before her death in 1997. Through Nancy's journals, letters, and newspaper clippings, he discovers the determined woman who reinvented herself to excel in a male-dominated field. This memoir traces John's journey from resentment to understanding as he uncovers his mother's true story and learns to admire the icon he never really knew.
Genres: 20th-century, american, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, family-drama, redemption
Setting: Potomac, Washington
Period: 1960s, 1997
352 pages · Kindle Edition · Simon & Schuster