Most biographies covering a subject up to age 79 will be fairly complete. When that subject is Nancy Pelosi, a second volume might be necessary. Of course, for Democrats reading first-time author Molly Ball's Pelosi, an absorbing, unabashedly wonky portrait of the Speaker through her 2019 announcement that the House would begin impeachment hearings against the president, the book ends at just the right spot.
The daughter of a Democratic congressman turned mayor of Baltimore, Pelosi married straight out of college and had five kids. Her banker husband's job required relocating to San Francisco, where Pelosi won the first time she ran for Congress, in 1987. Her image as a "rich lady only playing at politics" (false) who had "San Francisco values" (true) would hound her even as she assumed the speakership in 2007. As the first woman to hold the job, Pelosi became the highest-ranking female politician in U.S. history.
Pelosi asks not "What makes her tick?"--Time political correspondent Ball concedes that her subject's interior life is "fundamentally off limits"--but "How did she pull that off?" Ball's answer: through tireless fundraising, shrewd negotiating and superhuman patience, all of which helped Pelosi do what was needed to pass the Affordable Care Act and twice reclaim the Democratic majority in the House. Although Pelosi was written with the Speaker's cooperation, the book isn't fawning: it doesn't pretend that its subject always got it right, and Ball acknowledges Pelosi's icy demeanor. Apparently, the "click-click-click of her approaching heels reminded [House] members of the theme from Jaws." --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer