In the Sunday New York Times Book Review section, the reviewer
Patricia
O'Brien wrote:
''The
Girls in the Van'' ... is an entertaining, bouncy romp through
the usual fun and games of covering a campaign. But it offers
more than a story of reporters sharing the perils and tedium of
the road. It gives an illuminating glimpse at how the celebrity
of Hillary Clinton kept the news media off base. This campaign
was remarkable neither because a woman was running nor because
women were covering her, but because of Clinton's dual identity.
''What's wrong with us?'' a colleague of Harpaz's lamented as
they waited outside a school for the candidate to talk to them.
''We're still treating her like a first lady!''
Harpaz
also gives a frank account of what it was like to be the mother
of two children while following an energy-devouring campaign like
this one. In 1972, no male reporter was shopping for diapers on
the way home. Now, women reporters do just about anything they
have to do to cover both the campaign and their own home front,
and they see the women on the other side of the divide -- the
candidate's staff -- doing the same thing. Harpaz describes how
this makes for a certain uneasiness in the classic push-pull struggle
between press corps and staff. What do you say when a press secretary
delays the release of a new advertisement so you can get home
in time to see your kids before they go to bed? Thank you. Sort
of. But Harpaz still worried about compromising herself. more
THE
GIRLS IN THE VAN, published by St. Martin's Press, is available
in bookstores and can be ordered online at
www.amazon.com and at www.bn.com.
This
site was recommended in
PAUL'S
WEEKLY WEB PICKS
Recommendations from Paul Bedard, editor and chief reporter of
Washington Whispers
