Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the lessons of power

The dazzling achievements of a trailblazing politician. Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today, draws on a prodigious number of interviews with figures including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Ilhan Omar, and John Boehner; Nancy Pelosi's colleagues, friends, co-workers, and adversaries; and interviews with Pelosi herself to create a balanced, informative biography of a woman widely hailed as "a master of the inside game of politics." Born in Baltimore in 1940, Nancy D'Alesandro grew up steeped in public service. Her father was a Maryland Congressman and later Baltimore's mayor; her savvy, ambitious, pragmatic mother "organized the grass roots." Politics, Page notes, was "the family business." A year after graduating from Trinity College in 1962, she married Paul Pelosi, and in 1969, the couple and their growing family moved to San Francisco for Paul's work. While raising five children, Pelosi became involved in local politics, prompting San Francisco's mayor to tap her for the city's library commission. At the age of 35, Pelosi "discovered that she liked having an official position, being able to convene hearings, to cast votes. She began to think about her possible political role in a different way." In 1987, she won her first election. Early in her career, in Armani suits and stiletto heels, Pelosi was "routinely underestimated" by the male-dominated political world. But she quickly, and repeatedly, demonstrated her power: She was supremely organized, adept at fundraising, and laser-focused on success. A major force in passing the Affordable Care Act, Pelosi, Obama told Page, is "tougher than anybody in the world." As one reporter put it, she wielded "an iron fist in a Gucci glove." Page elaborates on Pelosi's impressive public career rather than on her personal life. "I'm as private a person as there is, a shy one," Pelosi told Page, when she deemed a question intrusive. Private, to be sure; shy, not believable. A brisk, well-researched life. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.