"The Truths We Hold" by Kamala Harris

Appropriately, I started reading "The Truths We Hold: An American Journey" by Kamala Harris on Inauguration Day, shortly after watching Harris be sworn in as the United States' 49th vice-president -- the first woman, first African-American and first South Asian-American to hold the office in the nation's history. 

This book -- part memoir, part policy statement/manifesto -- was published two years earlier, in January 2019 -- the same month Harris announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for president.  It interweaves her thoughts on various policy issues with her remarkable personal story and her rise to national office. She's obviously very knowledgeable on the issues and very articulate at expressing her opinions. It's clear she wanted to use this book to position herself for presidential run. But it was the personal stories -- about her early life, her immigrant/activist parents, her marriage to Douglas Emhoff -- that I found most interesting.  

As a Canadian, I was (naturally) very interested in what she had to say about the time she spent in Montreal, when her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, got a job as a breast cancer researcher at the Jewish General Hospital and lecturer at McGill University.  Disappointingly, the Canadian content is pretty skimpy, and Harris makes it pretty clear that she was relieved to head back to the States when she was finished high school. The years Harris lived in Montreal (approximately 1976 to 1981, from the time she was 12 through her graduation from Westmount High School) were among some of the most politically turbulent in Quebec/Canadian history, with a separatist government (led by a highly colourful premier, Rene Levesque) running the show. Perhaps that coloured her impressions -- perhaps, as a teenaged newcomer, she didn't really understand what was going on around her -- or perhaps she or her editors felt it was best not to comment on that highly charged and complex topic (which is hard enough for Canadians to understand, let alone Americans)...!  She writes about her struggles to learn French and the difficult time she had attending a French-language school when she arrived. And of course, she complains about the snow & cold. ;)  She says she eventually adjusted, but she was "homesick for my country. I felt this constant sense of yearning to be back home. There was no question in my mind I'd return home for college." Well, allrighty then... 

I've mentioned this to a few friends who pointed out that Harris has already received enough flack and doubts about her "legitimacy" to run for the presidency because of her immigrant parents (much as Barack Obama did) without drawing attention to the fact that she spent several years living outside the country too. Plus, there simply isn't a lot of political payoff for her to draw attention to her ties to Canada either. (Maybe it's just my Canadian inferiority complex showing, lol.) I'll be curious to see whether she makes more of her Canadian connection in her new role as vice-president. 

Anyway. 

One other disappointment:  many of us in the childless/free community are thrilled to claim Kamala Harris as one of our own -- but there is no reflection here on how she felt about remaining single and childless into her late 40s, and no mention of any previous relationships. She does express a few trepidations about meeting her husband's two children/her future stepchildren for the first time, but obviously takes great pride in her role as their "Momala," as well as her relationships as an aunt, great-aunt and godmother.  

This is a good intro to Kamala Harris, her life story, career path and politics -- and it's quite readable -- but it just skims the surface. I didn't close the book feeling completely satisfied.  I wanted to know MORE. I understand it's her prerogative not to share everything about her life, but she's a public figure (now vice-president of the United States!), and a game-changing one at that. I wish she had chosen to be a little more forthcoming and candid and didn't gloss over certain aspects of her life so much. Besides childlessness, and marriage and step-motherhood at midlife, I would like to know more about her father (he drops out of the picture pretty quickly after her parents divorce, and reportedly they are estranged these days), about her grandparents, and her impressions of India and Zambia and Jamaica, after visiting her relatives there. She writes about health care (& notes how much cheaper prescription drugs are here), but what (if anything) did she learn about the Canadian health care system while living here, and while her mother worked within the system? 

Perhaps she'll write another book that reveals more, once her political career is behind her. I hope so.

3.5 stars on Goodreads, rounded down to 3. It was an interesting read, but I couldn't bring myself to give it a full 4 stars, given the reservations I've outlined above. 

This was Book #4 read to date in 2021 (and Book #4 finished in January), bringing me to 11% of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2021 tagged as "2021 books."