Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers

Whatever your political leanings, you'll be alternately pleased and dismayed by the parade of highly intelligent contributors-including fiction author Lorrie Moore, New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean and Vanity Fair editor Leslie Bennetts-offering their views on presidential candidate and former First Lady Hillary Clinton. Though many issues are covered, the most prevalent is the gender question: ""I wish I could vote gender blind,"" says novelist and essayist Kathryn Harrison, but admits that, ""everything else being equal, I will vote for a woman over a man."" Rarely, if ever, has cookie-baking (or not baking), hairstyles and spouses been so often brought up in relation to a presidential candidate, but the question of authenticity dogs the every move of both Clinton and her critics; says Laura Kipnis, ""the specter of loss looms at the moment, at least for men... So what gets spoken of instead? Well, hair for one thing."" Elsewhere, Daphne Merkin looks at Bill and Hillary as a couple; Susan Cheever examines Clinton's list of favorite books; and Deborah Tannen explores the ""damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't paradox of women in charge."" Readers interested in Hillary, gender politics or the evolution of the presidential campaign should find this book fascinating.