Government girl : young and female in the White House
(Book)
Description
Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Blue Island Public Library - Stacks | 973.929 AAB | On Shelf |
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Subjects
Autobiographies.
Clinton, Bill, -- 1946- -- Friends and associates.
Interns (Legislation) -- United States -- Biography.
Political culture -- United States.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1993-2001 -- Moral and ethical aspects.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1993-2001.
White House (Washington, D.C.) -- Biography.
Women employees -- Biography.
More Details
Published Reviews
Publisher's Weekly Review
A young staffer in the Clinton White House when the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, Parker Aab effectively re-creates the heady excitement of working among powerful personages in the upper echelons of government. A native of suburban Detroit and then an 18-year-old scholarship student at George Washington University, Aab nee Parker possessed sterling credentials in civil and community service when she was selected to intern during the summer of 1993 for George Stephanopoulos's press office in the Old Executive Office Building. She answered the reams of fan mail that poured in and trained the other interns; her job eventually led to a staff position, as well as work doing presidential advance planning, which entailed traveling with Clinton's team and booking overnight accommodations. Tall and attractive, Parker soon learned where the power resided, e.g., with men such as Vernon Jordan, who offered professional advice freely over meals. When the Lewinsky details erupted in January 1998, Parker and her office under Paul Begala felt betrayed, though somehow unsurprised. Her memoir is well polished, and despite a few suggestive anecdotes about Vernon and Clinton, is mercifully free of salacious revelations. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
Aab worked in the Clinton White House as an intern, first in the communications office run by George Stephanopoulos and later on the staff of consultant Paul Begala. She was fascinated by the powerful people surrounding her, and her writing indicates not just her confidence but her sense of vulnerability and need for recognition. Aab opens the book with a somewhat suggestive account of a "close encounter" with President Clinton while doing advance work for his 2000 G8 summit trip to Japan. Men in the Clinton circle did befriend her; Vernon Jordan occasionally invited her to dinner, and during the Kenneth Starr investigations, she was deposed about that relationship. Aab knew Monica Lewinsky only slightly, but her experiences provide insight into the Lewinsky scandal by showing how easily such young, ambitious women can be influenced by the powerful men they meet. VERDICT Aab's chronology is sometimes hard to follow, and her accounts of personal relationships can display a youthful naivete. However, her descriptions of the less-than-glamorous life of a White House intern/staffer are intriguing. Recommended for readers interested in this kind of view of White House operations, especially young women considering a similar career path.-Jill Ortner, SUNY at Buffalo Libs. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Book Review
This memoir by a first-time author aims to rescue the phrase "White House intern" from infamynot an easy task since Monica Lewinsky. Huffington Post contributor Aab largely succeeds by relating her experiences as an idealistic, ambitious young woman working and learning among the charismatic men (and women) at the highest levels of government. She honors the noble impulse toward public service, even as she is candid about the dangerously erotic charge of being in the presence of power. As an intern in the office of White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos while studying political science at George Washington University, Aab knew the young woman at the center of the scandal that almost brought down the Clinton Administration. While nonsalaried staff held down the fort one night during the government shutdown of 1995, the president even brought the author a slice of the very pizza that started his trouble with that other intern. She tells of instances of unwanted attention she received from President Clinton and his friend Vernon Jordan, but she provides a nuanced portrait of these men, whom she still admires. "Like a row of TVs turned to different stations," she writes, "they could exude nurturing love as much as they did sexual desire, and there were times I chose to keep my eyes on the nurturing love show and ignore the others." She contrasts the complicated Clinton and Jordan with her bosses Stephanopoulos and, later, Paul Begala, whom she admires unreservedly for being "spiritual" and self-restrained. However, the book is not a paean to famous and powerful men, and Aab is an interesting subject in her own right: the driven daughter of a white nurse from Kansas and a black Army veteran from Detroit who died young from the effects of alcoholism, and an insightful observer of history-making atmosphere in which she worked. A nicely written, mildly spicy memoir of the Clinton White House. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Citations
Aab, S. P. (2010). Government girl: young and female in the White House (First edition.). Ecco.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Aab, Stacy Parker. 2010. Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House. New York, NY: Ecco.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Aab, Stacy Parker. Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House New York, NY: Ecco, 2010.
Harvard Citation (style guide)Aab, S. P. (2010). Government girl: young and female in the white house. First edn. New York, NY: Ecco.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Aab, Stacy Parker. Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House First edition., Ecco, 2010.