The Girls in the Van: Covering Hillary [Hardcover]

Beth Harpaz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312281269 | ISBN-13: 978-0312281267 | Publication Date: October 12, 2001 | Edition: 1st

The Girls in the Van is the ultimate press pass to Hillary Clinton's historic Senate run, following the first lady from the moment she dons a black pantsuit and a Yankees cap all the way to her historic victory. This book is a front-row seat in the press van as Hillary takes a "My Fair Lady" -style Yiddish lesson, invokes Harriet Tubman thirty times on a tour of black churches, and spends as much time explaining why she kissed Yassir Arafat's wife as she does justifying why she stays married to Bill. The Girls in the Van takes you on an unforgettable trip, from the ladies room at the Waldorf to the garden of the Clinton's Westchester home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For two long years, Associated Press staff writer Harpaz covered Hillary Clinton's Senate election campaign. This journal of those days serves as an update of Timothy Crouse's 1972 insider's account of political reporting, The Boys on the Bus. It's a worthy successor insightful, honest and funny. Much has changed in reporting since 1972. Typewriters and telephones have been replaced by laptops and Palm pilots, and women, all but absent in Crouse's book, make up half of the reporters covering Clinton. Harpaz spends most of her time trying to gain access to the always aloof Hillary, no easy task since, as depicted here, she uses her status as First Lady, and all the security that entails, to keep the press at bay. Only after months of scheming and begging, for instance in an episode that's both hilarious and telling is Harpaz able to get a simple list of favorites (color, food, movie, etc.) from the candidate. In the end, Harpaz can't decide if Hillary is a controlling politician or a sincere public advocate, a cold schemer or warm friend to all, and she comes to realize why her subject has been such a lightning rod for both hate and adoration. There's more here: how reporters cope with the absolute boredom of hearing the same few speeches months on end, how Harpaz tries, not very successfully, to have a normal home life for her two small children while working a time-consuming job. But it's soon-to-be-Senator Clinton who dominates the story, and Harpaz offers an insightful portrait that is a joy to read. Agent, Jane Dystel. (Oct. 8)Forecast: Harpaz's eye for detail and razor-sharp wit should appeal to an audience beyond just political junkies. With good word of mouth-and regional N.Y. promotion- it could do quite well.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The campaign travelog has ranged widely from portraits in courage to studies in evil to telling tales out of school, as in Timothy Crouse's 1972 The Boys on the Bus. Here AP writer Harpaz recounts the story of First Lady Hillary Clinton's 62-county campaign to become a U.S. Senator from New York. Harpaz takes us backstage into the exhausted press bus games of "Punchy Bug" and re-creates the frustrations of covering a senate candidate who has the added cover of a Secret Service detail. Even Harpaz never suspected the scandal-damaged First Lady would enter the ugly fray until April 1999, when she first turned to acknowledge the New York press corps on a school tour. Sixteen months, two opponents, and, to quote Mrs. Clinton, "six black pant suits later," she beat Congressman Rick Lazio by a full 12 points. Harpaz makes a sympathetic and plainspokenly likable guide watching the cool candidate emerge from the media-leery First Lady; at one point, Harpaz lucks into a one-on-one "avail" with Mrs. Clinton, who cagily turns the subject back to Harpaz's efforts to toilet-train her toddler. In the end, despite the time away from her own family and the hundreds of manipulations by the candidate's staff, Harpaz ends up feeling a trace of admiration for this transformed "carpetbagger with a suitcase full of scandals" who "had outdone a squeaky-clean local boy." Recommended for all public libraries. Nathan Ward, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (October 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312281269
• ISBN-13: 978-0312281267
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,373,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and Insight on the Campaign Trail with Hillary, November 6, 2001

By 

Betsy H. Turner (Croton, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Girls in the Van: Covering Hillary (Hardcover)

I had a great time reading this book! Enjoyable from beginning to end! In fact, I read the whole thing pretty much straight through once I started. AP reporter Beth Harpaz conveys her experience of covering Hillary Clinton's campaign through a series of sometimes funny, sometimes touching and always interesting anecdotes about suriving life on the campaign trail with Hillary. She creates a uniformly interesting story without dipping into the typical "kiss and tell", dirty-laundry type fare we see too much of these days. At the same time, however, there are enough revealing bits about the various players in this campaign to satisfy the voyeur in all of us. Somehow, in reading this tale I became fascinated by the job of a political reporter and was intrigued with Harpaz's descriptions as to what constitutes news in a campaign and how that news is created and controlled. And of course, there were the many related stories about how the campaign itself desperately strove to create an image, appeal to constituencies and control the news themselves.

Harpaz also strikingly relays her personal struggles in balancing the demands of the all consuming campaign trail with her even more consuming job as mother of two young boys. And she openly discusses her conflicts about her choices as a professional and as a mother. We all know what that's about! Harpaz also has some interesting thoughts on the role that sexism may or may not have played in press coverage of the campaign and in Hillary's role as a candidate and First Lady.

But "Girls in the Van" is not really a heavy, ponderous book. It's actually alot of fun. I laughed out loud a number of times while reading this book, for instance when reading the lyrics of the naughty songs the reporters on the press van made up about Hillary or while reading Harpaz's account of how the press lost it at a campaign rally where the singing group "10,000 Maniacs" opened the program and Hillary followed by stating how great it was to be there with 10,000 maniacs.

In the end, I really didn't know how Harpaz felt about Hillary, but I also didn't care. I was simply taken with the story. Check this book out. It's a really good read. - (***)

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, the inside story on Hillary's race, November 5, 2001

By 

Barbara W. (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Girls in the Van: Covering Hillary (Hardcover)

As a New Yorker and a political junkie, I've been waiting for the inside scoop on what really went on during Hillary's campaign. Beth Harpaz has finally shed some light on one of America's most celebrated and enigmatic public figures -- and she's done so from a woman's distinct perspective.

Why do we love Hillary? Why do we hate her? Would we like her more if we knew her personally? less? Why does Hillary inspire such a range of emotions in New Yorkers and Americans? And how, after all she endured, was Hillary able to get such a plurality of New Yorkers to vote for her? Harpaz asks all the right questions, and has some inspiring and entertaining answers.

Not to mention the fact that the book is a highly enjoyable read - I couldn't put it down, and I breezed through it in one weekend.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and informative, December 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Girls in the Van: Covering Hillary (Hardcover)

I really would recommend this book to anyone interested in reading a witty, enjoyable insider's view of the Hillary campaign. This could have been a dry, boring political analysis, but the author really made every page seem fresh and interesting. Whatever your view of Hillary Clinton, your time won't be wasted reading about her run for senator.

I hope Ms. Harpaz writes more books, as her insightful style is very refreshing.