Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers

No other politician inspires such a wide range of passionate feelings as Hillary Rodham Clinton. As America's first viable female candidate for president, she has become the repository of many women's contradictory hopes and fears. To some she's a sellout who changed her name and her hairstyle when it suited her husband's career; to others she's a hardworking idealist with the political savvy to work effectively within the system. Where one person sees a carpetbagger, another sees a dedicated politician; where one sees a humiliated and long-suffering wife, another sees a dignified First Lady. Is she tainted by the scandals of her husband's presidency, or has she gained experience and authority from weathering his missteps? Cold or competent, overachiever or pioneer, too radical or too moderate, Hillary Clinton continues to overturn the assumptions we make about her.

In Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary, New Yorker editor Susan Morrison has compiled this timely collection of thirty original pieces by America's most notable women writers. This pointillistic portrait paints a composite picture of Hillary Clinton, focusing on details from the personal to the political, from the hard-hitting to the whimsical, to give a well-balanced and unbiased view of the woman who may be our first Madam President. Taken together, these essays—by such renowned writers as Daphne Merkin, Lorrie Moore, Deborah Tannen, Susan Cheever, Lionel Shriver Kathryn Harrison, and Susan Orlean—illuminate the attitudes that women have toward the powerful women around them and constitute a biography that is must reading for anyone interested in understanding this complex and controversial politician.

"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." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Morrison, editor at "The New Yorker," brings together a stellar group of writers, including Deborah Tannen, Susan Cheever, Lorrie Moore, and others, to offer a compelling multidimensional look at the woman who might the Americas first female president.

Susan Morrison has been the articles editor of The New Yorker for twelve years. She is the former editor in chief of the New York Observer, an original editor of SPY magazine, and the onetime features director of Vogue. She lives in New York City with her two daughters.