A Good Fight [Unabridged] [Hardcover]

Sarah Brady (Author), Merrill McLoughlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 2002

A bracingly honest memoir by the wife of former Reagan press secretary James Brady on the bullet that changed their lives-and how personal tragedy inspired great public accomplishment. On March 30, 1981, Sarah Brady's husband James was critically injured during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. Some years later, she presided over passage of a handgun control law known as the Brady Bill. Now, in A Good Fight, Brady tells the compelling human story behind these news events in a voice laced with honesty, humor, and a complete absence of self-pity. It is the story of her involvement in Republican politics; of her courtship and marriage; of the Brady's brief idyll as "country mice" among the Reagan glitterati, and of the tragic day that changed their lives forever. Sarah talks candidly about the many obstacles and difficulties her family encountered learning to live together after the shooting, and about her challenges as a mother. She describes how she became a gun control activist-which didn't happen until years after her husband's shooting. She recalls her decade of work with Handgun Control Inc. which culminated in the passage of the Brady Bill and led to her organization's merger with the Million Mom March. The book also tells the story of Sarah's recent battle with lung cancer, and demonstrates how she's fighting back against this latest adversity with the same spirit she brought to all her other challenges.Much more than a polemic about the importance of gun control, A Good Fight is a wonderfully readable personal story about an ordinary woman coping with extraordinary events and becoming extraordinary in the process.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"After a disaster," writes Sarah Brady, "you shouldn't try to go back and live exactly the way you did before." Brady has weathered the crippling of her husband by attempted Reagan assassin John Hinckley, the gun-control battle against the National Rifle Association, scorn heaped on her by pro-gun conservative pundits, raising a son with learning disabilities, and recurrent cancer. These hardships have taught her abundant lessons in how to conduct a political campaign and reckon with shortcomings and doubts, lessons she imparts throughout this highly readable memoir.

Those hardships have only steeled Brady's resolve both to win her battles and enjoy her time in the sun--a good fight indeed. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

Readers get an intimate look at the events, both personal and professional, that shaped Brady's political career and the direction of U.S. gun legislation in this memoir of the lobbying life. She begins her story on March 30, 1981, when her husband, White House Press Secretary James Brady, was shot in an assassination attempt on President Reagan. His injury and recuperation, filled with close calls and setbacks, takes her on a journey that includes 15 years at the lobbying group Handgun Control, first as a volunteer, then as a board member and finally as its chair until 1996. Brady gives a detailed, suspenseful account of the struggle to pass the Brady bill, a handgun control law finally signed in 1993. Readers will take special interest in her recollections of high-profile politicians. Though she doesn't sling mud, Brady openly expresses her frustration with those who hindered the bill. A lifelong Republican (and an admirer of Reagan), Brady became disillusioned when Bush the elder effectively blocked passage of the bill, and she endorsed Clinton in 1992. Writing in unpretentious prose, she leads the reader from one fight to the next without stopping to feel sorry for herself even in the midst of husband's disability and her own current battle with lung cancer. The book will likely appeal to political enthusiasts and ardent gun-control supporters, and, though Brady is neither as iconoclastic nor as captivating a writer as Katharine Graham, fans of Graham's Personal History may enjoy this story of a determined woman in a male-dominated Washington. 8 pages b&w photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1st edition (March 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586481053
• ISBN-13: 978-1586481056
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,297,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inspirational Story, April 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Good Fight (Hardcover)

I read two autobiographies back-to-back: one by Katherine Graham, and the other by Sarah Brady. These are two different women in Washington's inner political circle, from two different walks of life. Both women had life-altering experiences due to their husbands being shot. Graham's husband committed suicide; Brady's husband was permanently disabled during an assassination attempt on President Reagan. I found Brady's story about her life to be completely unpretentious and honest. It is a compelling story that reads easily. Brady wants to tell us about the episodes of her life, but the real inspiration lies in the way she addresses each of those episodes. Feel free to agree or disagree with her political preferences, or her beliefs about gun control. But don't for one minute question her authenticity. This is a book that entertains, while also making readers analyze their own values.

16 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great Mother's Day gift !, May 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Good Fight (Hardcover)

I borrowed this book from the library and read it in a day and a half. (I work two jobs, so I consider this to be a major accomplisment!) I liked "A Good Fight" so much that I then purchased a copy for my mom for mother's day. There is a lot to admire about Sarah Brady: the strength with which she faced and continues to face an adversary like the NRA; her courage in dealing with her husband's disability and her own cancer; her brutal honesty with which she addresses and discusses her ongoing battle with a cigarette addiction. The list goes on. Sarah faces every challenge in life with strength and determination and she is an inpiration to anyone who wants to make a difference and live their lives fully. There are many "good fights" in this inspiring and uplifting book. Kudos to Sarah Brady.

15 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definition of grace under pressure, April 2, 2002

By 

"michael2128" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Good Fight (Hardcover)

I don't know what it is about guns that makes people react with such hatred and anger. This book is a powerful story of an intelligent, tough woman who has taken tragedy and turned it into a powerful crusade. She turned the tragic shooting of her husband, Jim, into an effort that has kept guns out of the hands of criminals only to find out that she's been stricken with cancer. And, again, she chose to fight - this time against the disease within.

It's a powerful story, well told. Whether you agree with her policies or not, it's impossible not to admire her strength of character and conviction.