Readers who enjoy political intrigue and an insider's view of the workings of United States politics will find an excellent tour guide in Barney Frank, the outspoken gay Democrat who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (representing Massachusetts) from 1981 to 2013.
Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage is a political biography--there's no time for childhood memories; by page six, Frank is 16 years old and working on Adlai Stevenson's second presidential campaign. He offers compelling and nuanced accounts of how key political legislation moved through the political mechanisms, and why they succeeded or failed.
Never averse to working with Republicans, Frank made cross-party compromises to help end racial and sexual inequality. Today, compromise is almost impossible. Frank writes: "America's political community has come to live in two parallel media universes. Each wing ingests information and opinion that reinforces its own policy preferences and its own conviction that those preferences reflect majority opinion."
As an astute eyewitness and participant to more than 50 years of political history, Frank offers keen observations about Bill Clinton's impeachment hearings; the creation of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"; becoming the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, where he tried to reform Wall Street; the Iraq War; and the rise of the Tea Party. Frank is more reticent about his private life, but opens up a bit when discussing his relationship and eventual marriage to Jim Ready. Frank is a talented, persuasive and witty raconteur whose passion for politics and justice translates to a compulsively readable overview of American political life. --Kevin Howell, reviewer and marketing consultant