Kamala Harris’ ‘The Truths We Hold’ Demonstrates What’s Wrong With Campaign Books

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

If a capital book is a deluxe meal, the campaign script is a bottle of Soylent. A novel by Nabokov, a play by Shakespeare, tied a pulpy airport crime novel — these satisfy the basic urge to read a report with begin, middle and end ; to watch characters interact and to understand their complex motivations. These stories are there for the joy of consumption. The crusade book is not that. The campaign book is a manner of speaking device. It ‘s there to supply you with something : the case for Candidate X. If you laugh or cry at Candidate X ‘s book — well, that ‘s great, but did you come away thinking X would be a good president ? That is what matters. well, that and how a lot buzz the reserve creates. aside from convincing readers, the campaign bible is besides straight-up market, it ‘s there to give a candidate a impermanent news bicycle boost, as reviewers end up basically writing Candidate X profiles, about entirely sourced from Candidate X ‘s own words. so. It is consequently with a near-crippling drug of self-awareness that I review Kamala Harris ‘ newly bible, The Truths We Hold. The book, not coincidentally, comes as Harris is expected to launch her presidential campaign in the come weeks. Harris spoke to NPR about the book Tuesday .

As with many crusade books, The Truths We Hold reads as a memoir-but-not-really. Harris does tell her life history, but she uses it as a vehicle for telling us what she truly wants us to know about her. Her childhood shows us the values that she received from her beget. The section about her fourth dimension as a district lawyer and then as California ‘s lawyer general allows her to tout her accomplishments and lay out her policy positions. Talking about her time in the Senate allows her to far elaborate upon her positions — and besides to contrast herself with President Trump, whom she presumably hopes to face in a cosmopolitan election. To read a campaign reserve is to be on your defend, because every detail has an subterranean motivation. Let your guard skid, and you can get lost in the hard turns from personal anecdote to policy speak .

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In one section, for exercise, Harris talks about crafts she made as a child. So you might think ( as I did ) : She ‘s into crocheting ! What a fascinate insight into her hobb- gaaaaah. Nope — she ‘s using this to tell us about the dignity of work. This is fair one manner the core aspects of a good book arguably work against a campaign book.

similarly, the best protagonists have flaws. They struggle against something. And it ‘s easy to see why a person who might soon launch a presidential campaign might not be excited to publish their struggles. Harris does indeed gloss over hers. Her fictionalize of failing the bar on the first try, then passing it on the second, happens in the course of three paragraph. Her “ sturdy, determined ” Senate overflow opponent, democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez, gets less than three sentences. There ‘s besides some careful exception of facts. For exercise, Harris talks about her frustration with immigration policy in 2014, when “ a big crusade was coming out of DC to expedite the decision-making procedure so that they could quickly turn undocumented kids and families back. ”

Readers who have paid close care to history might remember that in 2014, the president was Barack Obama. And while in other parts of her koran Harris approvingly name-checks Obama — a democratic guy whom she might want to deliver a stomp actor’s line or two — she forgets to name him here. There are batch of platitudes. She describes where she grew up : “ It was a close-knit neighborhood of working families who were focused on doing a good job, paying the bills, and being there for one another ” — and no one could blame you if your judgment started wandering halfway through that prison term. There ‘s plain old awkward prose, as in her description of the Women ‘s March : “ There were indeed many people that cellular networks had gone down, even the energy was electric. ” so is it a great book ? No. No, it is not. But that ‘s not a particularly interest question, as political campaign books are rarely big reads. The question is whether it ‘s an effective record. On that count, Harris is more successful. In The Truths We Hold, Harris presents herself as a potentially formidable presidential candidate. Which is to say : She efficiently makes her case, like the prosecutor she is. Harris ticks through her résumé and her policy positions. And this is where one of Harris ‘ biggest strengths becomes clear : anticipating critiques and batting them down. For example, Harris has spent much of her career in jurisprudence enforcement — a period that she largely uses in the book as a direction to show that she is bad and decisive. But she besides anticipates that this might be off-putting to some free voters who believe the judge system is broken. And so she frames herself as a sort of inside woman : “ When activists came marching and banging on the doors, I wanted to be on the early slope to let them in. ” Which is to say : She presents herself as prepared to deflect the barb that will surely come her manner. And while the prose may not be Pulitzer-worthy, there are regular sentences that sound particularly crafted to elicit roars at a campaign rally ( “ The american people have not given up on the american Dream. … But when you ca n’t sleep at nox, how can you dream ? ” “ Prescription medicines are not luxury goods. Quite the opposition. We do n’t want to need them ! “ ). Readers even may see the birth of a campaign motto, as Harris tells the narrative of her first gear clock trying a character in the court :

“ When my bend came, I rose from my professorship at the prosecutor ‘s desk and stepped up to the dais, saying the words every prosecutor speaks : ‘Kamala Harris, for the people. ‘ “

… a line that practically begs to be read as a political television ad voice-over. It ‘s that court experience that may inform precisely how Harris approached writing The Truths We Hold. Toward the end of her book, she explains how she advises unseasoned lawyers to write their close arguments :

“ Their job was to get up there and show the jury that two plus two plus two plus two leads, flatly, to eight. I ‘d tell them to break down every element. Explain the logic of their argument. Show the jury how they reached their decision. ”

Reading this book, one does get a sense of being in a jury box, patiently listening as a lawyer methodically — if boringly — lays out a case. Which is to say : It ‘s not quite that the bar is lowered with the political campaign koran. It ‘s possibly more accurate to say that the bar is replaced with a series of hoops. In her open argument for 2020, Harris jumps through them .