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Government Girl: Young And Female In The White House (2010)

by Stacy Parker Aab(Favorite Author)

3.04 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

006167222X (ISBN13: 9780061672224)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Ecco

review 1: This is really 3-1/2 stars. I really enjoyed reading Government Girl. But . . . there were a few things that drove me crazy about the book.My biggest annoyance was with the structure. I've read memoir before, and I've taken creative nonfiction classes. I know that you're not supposed to write a strictly chronological account of a period of your life. I didn't mind Parker's flashbacks to childhood, or to events that weren't significant enough to mention at the time but gained significance later (e.g. Lewinsky, FBI testimony). I would have appreciated more flash-forwards throughout. But apart from that there was altogether too much skipping around for me, in a relatively short period of time. We skipped around between various years of working for the White House in th... moree 1990s, and the different periods were similar enough to one another that I found myself flipping (well, clicking) back and forth a lot to remember when I was. It feels weird to call the author Aab, because throughout the book she's Parker. And, now, apparently, she's Le Melle. Perhaps later she'll write another memoir covering the post-White House chapter in her life. My frustration with this is that we get to know so much about Parker's childhood and early adult life, and it's written recently, but then there's this big gap between Parker's work in the Clinton White House and when she wrote this book. This is especially awkward because so much of GOVERNMENT GIRL foreshadows Parker's bright, shiny future. She got this internship, that scholarship, this job, these mentorships, awards, honors, all with the suggestion that she is a leader of tomorrow! A shining star! Someone with a big future! And then . . . what? Obviously, some of my curiosity is natural reader curiosity about the author. But part of it is structural. The text sets the reader up to ask these questions and then stops.One more thing. Parker Aab writes a bit about women she worked with and for. She writes about their help and their competence. But she does not refer to them as leaders or as mentors. Her mentors are all older men. The people with whom she networks are mostly older men. She's a young, attractive woman and the way she writes about her interactions with the (male) power players - professors, politicians, staffers, community leaders - makes her sound flirtatious. From a feminist perspective, this really bugged me. It felt like she was playing the game and profiting from it, all the while critiquing it from the perspective of an observer or victim rather than a participant. I'm not suggesting that Parker Aab is to blame for the advances she sometimes received from powerful men. Or that flirtation is always wrong. But it seems like Aab was creating part of a risque environment herself. For example, when Parker Aab was working for George Stephenopoulos and Rahm Emmanuel once came to see him, she told Rahm that George was out, but started a playful conversation with him, asking his birthday (on her own birthday) etc. It was just a really awkward vibe.All these are negative points. But, really, I thought the book was well done. I very much appreciated Parker Aab/Le Melle's honesty, and the way she didn't shy from portraying herself negatively at times. I enjoyed reading the book. I flew through it in just a couple of days. I learned a lot. I'm glad I read it.
review 2: I won a copy of this book through Firstreads - and I was *so* excited to get a free book in the mail, especially one that let me get a couple of background details about life in the Clinton White House. There's always been a part of me that would love love love to work in the White House - although I'll admit, mostly in the televised White House of The West Wing than any real one. So it was kind of amazing to read about a girl who at a pretty young age (18) did just that. I could identify with Parker's voice - she was incredibly open in the book, not just with the details of her work and life but with her feelings. That might be the hardest thing, in my opinion, about writing memoir - all that damn honesty! But she does it well and so for someone like me, who wants all those medicine-cabinet details about someone's life, it was awesome. less

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