Molly Ball's biography of Nancy Pelosi is packed with detail, but some of it is incredibly silly and distracting: do we really need to read about Seth Moulton's square jaw, or Hakeem Jeffries's "bald pate" and "lilting accent"?
It started off well – I found the chapters describing Pelosi's childhood and rise in the Democratic party very interesting. Later, the sections covering her political process with President George Bush were also a good reminder of the issues of that period.
I must also say that Ball lays into President Obama with vehemence to the extent that her disapproval of him is palpable. She is highly critical of his stewardship of the economy, and his rescue of the country's finances after the deep hole the Bush administration left behind seems much diminished here. The emphasis seems to be on his conflicts with Pelosi, and while those have already been reported upon, she seems to heighten them to an unbalanced level.
Once we came to the Trump era, it was all too familiar. The incidents she covered have all been examined ad infinitum in the New York Times, Washington Post, on CNN and by other news outlets. Since we are in the closing days of that horrendous presidency and there is hope on the horizon, I really did not want to relive the nightmare of the past four years. I merely wanted to finish the book, and after having invested so much time on it, was not going to drop it, but skipped through quickly. I was happy to come to the end.
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