The Education of an Idealist

Starred review from August 26, 2019
In vividly told scenes, with bracing honesty and breathless prose, Pulitzer Prize–winner Power (A Problem from Hell) reflects on the roads that led from her college days at Yale to her work in the U.S. government. She graduated from Harvard Law School, and in 2005 met Sen. Barack Obama, who asked her to serve as a foreign policy adviser. After his presidential election, Obama brought Power into the National Security Council in 2009, and from 2013 to 2017, she served as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Power takes readers behind the scenes of her visits to Libya during the final tense days of the Qaddafi regime, pointing out that in spite of the downturn in security, Libya’s citizens agreed that they wanted no international presence in their country, but to determine their own future. She discovered that Burma’s human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi is a bad listener and that it’s not clear that Suu Kyi cared that much about humans. Ultimately, she stresses the necessity of caring, acting, and not giving up when seeking to change people’s lives. Power’s vibrant prose, exuberant storytelling, and deep insights into human nature make for a page-turning memoir.

Samantha Power's appealing voice exhibits gravitas, humility, and humor in this remarkable memoir. She is clear and compelling as she reflects on multiple turning points in her life--emigrating from Ireland as a child, visiting Dachau and Anne Frank's house, reporting on the Bosnian genocide, being a foreign policy advisor to President Obama, and becoming U.N. ambassador. Power struggles to retain her natural activism--a desire for American intervention to stem human rights abuses--while operating within the real constraints of American governmental and military institutions. Managing a young family along with a super-busy professional life generates lighter moments. It's hard not to giggle when her son Declan stomps away after unsuccessfully trying to get her attention during a political crisis, muttering "Putin, Putin, Putin. When will it be Declan, Declan, Declan?" A.B. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Starred review from September 1, 2019
As a young Irish immigrant to the U.S., painfully separated from her beloved, alcoholic father, Power learned the lessons of otherness and found refuge and camaraderie in sports, a passion that has helped her break down many barriers. The Tiananmen Square protests precipitated her political awakening; Washington, DC, internships stoked her fascination with foreign policy, and her intrepidness, writing skills, empathic curiosity, and commitment to justice propelled her to become a war correspondent in Bosnia at 23. Hoping to effect change, Power earned a law degree and wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning history of genocide, A Problem from Hell (2002), which led to the first of many delving conversations with U.S. senator, then president Barack Obama, who appointed her to be a human rights advisor on the National Security Council, then U.S. Ambassador to the UN. In this gripping and revelatory memoir, Power chronicles, with vibrant precision and stunning candor, her best and worst moments navigating the obstacle courses within the White House and the UN, daunting global crises, and personal struggles. She is utterly compelling in her eye-witness accounts of violence and political standoffs and shrewdly witty in her tales about balancing diplomacy and motherhood. Ultimately, Power affirms the possibility for positive change and asserts that America's power resides in its respect for human rights.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 1, 2019

Power (The Unquiet American) holds endowed chairs at both Harvard's Kennedy School and Law School, and received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide. She served as Barack Obama's special assistant for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights (2009-13) and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2013-17). Here, she presents an illuminating and engaging account of her journey from would-be sports journalist to award-winning author, from Irish immigrant to presidential cabinet member. Along the way, Power shares about her family life, notably the challenges of raising two young children while serving in high-level government positions. Some of the narrative's best features include insights into working with fellow diplomats in a male-dominated UN bureaucracy inflamed by tyrannical world leaders, such as Russia's Vladimir Putin and Syria's Bashir Assad. Their actions are countered by anecdotes of heroic citizens who put their lives on the line for freedom from despots, disease, and mass murders. Power herself, was a steadfast advocate for immigrant, LGBTQ, and women's rights. VERDICT Revealing the inner-workings of foreign policy, this engrossing memoir will appeal to informed readers and will inspire women contemplating careers in public service. [See Prepub Alert, 3/4/19.]--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

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