A Life Made From Scratch

In her memoir, former Illinois congresswoman Newman talks about fighting for progressive causes in multiple arenas.

The book opens with Newman describing her older son’s difficult experiences with bullying in school. These incidents introduce readers to Newman’s protective and proactive nature—she met with parents and school officials and eventually started an antibullying nonprofit organization. She continued to push back against bullying in many sectors of her life, from handling domineering colleagues in the advertising world to standing up for her children to fighting for social justice issues in congress. Newman’s narrative of her other child’s gender transition, which came after many months of worry and interventions for the deep depression her daughter experienced before she came out as transgender, is a poignant rendering of a parent supporting their child. Newman recounts numerous stories of advocating for her community, experiences that led to her decision to run for congress. Her commitment to women’s rights, climate justice, and other progressive positions resonated with her constituents, and Newman defeated the incumbent. Tales of both legislative victories and defeats are related here, including the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, being unable to make meaningful progress toward universal healthcare, and losing key parts of the Build Back Better Act. After her first term, however, her district was redrawn, and she lost the next election. At the end of each chapter, Newman shares tips for navigating various situations, from making a career pivot to starting a political career to parenting transgender children. This guidance ranges from the concrete, such as, “Call a therapist or health-care provider to support [your child’s] emotional health” to broad ideals, like “The first step after a big failure or disappointment is to believe it and feel it.” While the format is practical and works for the tone of the book, the themes of many chapters overlap and some of the lessons become repetitive. While Newman’s time in office was short, the frank appraisal of the behind-the-scenes operations while she was in office is illuminating and relevant to today’s political moment, which contains many of the same players and issues.

An uplifting, timely political memoir about fighting for the underdog with a focus on actionable steps.