From Library Journal
Greenfield, editor of the editorial/opinion pages of the Washington Post until her death in 1999, left behind this jeremiad-cum-memoir, in which she describes the Washington political scene as "high school at its most dangerously deranged." She mercilessly derides the "hall monitors" and prodigies with whom she claims Washington is rife, ever fearful of losing their jobs because of a misspoken word. In order to defend against no-holds-barred press coverage, politicians now develop, according to Greenfield, a completely fabricated persona, generating formulaic exchanges with journalists that lead to a well-founded distrust of government institutions and the press; her odd contention is that Washington worked better in the past. A denizen of Washington for close to four decades, she has many tales to tell. Katharine Graham and Michael Beschloss, both good friends, supply a warm foreword and a warm afterword, respectively. Washington junkies will love this acerbic appraisal by a woman who was certainly in the know. Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, DC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Greenfield, who died in 1999, was the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial director at the Washington Post and a columnist for Newsweek. A Beltway fixture for almost 40 years, she wrote this dissection of Washington culture in secret, unbeknownst to family and friends. This notion of an insider telling tales out of school makes the book sound a lot juicier than it is. In fact, the tone is more clinical than sensational. Washington, she reveals, is like high school, and the overachieving student-council members are running the show. She shows how these "good children" come into political life, learn how to take on a persona, and then become it, often to the dismay of family members who are expected to function as little more than props. Greenfield also writes about the symbiotic relationship between the politicians and the press. Although one wouldn't necessarily expect her to name names, the book suffers from a lack of concrete examples to illustrate the theories being discussed. When she does mention specific politicians, they often go back 30 years. Political junkies will find much to like here, but there's not enough dish to make a best-seller. Sadly, not everyone remembers Everett Dirksen. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"[W]ritten in the coolly detached and slyly ironic style...of Miss Greenfield's columns and editorials in Newsweek and The Washington Post." -- --Jill Abramson, New York Times 4/23
About the Author
Meg Greenfield, who died in 1999, was a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. She wrote this book secretly in the final two years of her life, but told her literary executor, presidential historian Michael Beschloss, of her work and he has written an afterword telling the story of how the book came to be. Ms. Greenfield's close friend and longtime employer, Katharine Graham, wrote the foreword.
