Synopses & Reviews
A generation ago, a bestseller called
The Boys on the Bus caused a sensation with an insider's view of reporters on the Nixon-McGovern campaign trail.
Now The Girls in the Van offers the same behind-the-scenes look at Hillary Clinton's historic Senate run. This funny, breezy chronicle is the ultimate press pass to the day-to-day gossip, political maneuvering, awkward missteps, and inside jokes of the election. Veteran Associated Press reporter Beth Harpaz follows Hillary from the moment she dons a black pantsuit and a Yankees cap and declares her love for a state where she has never lived, all the way to her historic victory as the only first lady to ever win elective office.
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 thirty 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. Meet Chelsea as she stumps for her mother, the Secret Service agents who drove reporters crazy, and the campaign staffers who live to spin. Learn why the press corps' nickname for Hillary's opponent Rick Lazio was "Dick Lonzo", and listen in as the first lady bonds with Buffalo by announcing that she, too, "grew up in a Great Lakes state!" Watch reporters agonize over leads and deadlines and the working mothers in the press corps juggle campaign coverage with family responsibilities like potty training-a subject that the author unwittingly ends up discussing with Hillary on the evening news.
From a twelve-seat turboprop plane flying over central New York to the backseat of a bumpy press bus, The Girls in the Van takes you on an unforgettable trip, with stops at the ladies' room of the Waldorf, a Christmas party at the White House, the garden of the Clintons' Westchester home, and finally, the election night scene where Hillary claimed victory.
Review
"Harpaz's account radiates with honest wit and, toward the end, a grudging respect for Clinton." (Library Journal)
Review
"...a hard-working reporter...dissatisfied with the rigidly controlled woman she covered and never understood. Harpaz has written an honest book." (New York Times Book Review)
Review
"Beth Harpaz...offers some of the best insights I've read into the woman who is our most famous, and most mysterious, senator." (Bruce Morton, CNN National Correspondent)
Review
"...fine reading for anyone interested in politics, Clintons and the inside lore of the way campaigns are covered." (Walter Mears, AP Senior Political Correspondent)
Review
"An entertaining, bouncy romp...an illuminating glimpse...Harpaz has written an honest book. The result is an insider's view of a female reporter grappling with a groundbreaking campaign." --
The New York Times Book Review"Hilarious, knowing and lively." --The Washingtonian
"Entertainingly frank." --The Chicago Sun-Times
"Harpaz is a smart writer with a comic flair who captures the high silliness, the tedium, and the inanity of a long political campaign." --The Buffalo News
"A charming, funny, gossipy account of life on the inside of a landmark campaign." --Columbia Journalism Review
"Insightful, honest and funny." --Publisher's Weekly
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Beth J. Harpaz joined The Associated Press in 1988 after working for newspapers in Staten Island, N.Y., and Bergen County, N.J. She has won feature-writing awards from the New York Press Club and the Newswomen's Club of New York, and she holds degrees from Cornell University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Her coverage of Hillary Clinton's campaign has appeared in newspapers all over the country, including
The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and
The Philadelphia Inquirer.