Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World

I’ve seen Kirsten Gillibrand in several interviews on The Daily Show, and I always liked her position on legislation even though I no longer live in NYC so I decided to read Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World. It is less than 200 pages so it is a quick, enjoyable read, but a guarded memoir. Her most controversial reveal is that despite being a devout Catholic, she comes from a long line of cursing career ladies, which I particularly appreciate. Her strong suit is describing how she decided to enter politics, how she was able to do so (fundraising) and the minutiae of daily life when she describes her life as a Congresswoman and a Senator, but her life before that is an affable blur. At times, her book reads like a political speech as she points out laudable aphorisms (“Don’t be afraid to fail,” “Picture success”) or constituents’ stories to illustrate a cause that she supports. I have a common criticism of autobiographies or memoirs written by notable figures who aren’t writers: don’t be repetitive. Instead list the events in a chronological fashion because for such a short book to reiterate certain stories regardless of the importance in that individual’s life, it is a narrative failure. Even though this autobiography follows the reserved style of most political figures’ autobiographies, I still enjoyed Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World in the ways that Gillibrand stressed how her life differs from her male counterparts. Usually these books appear when someone is about to enter the Presidential race or have grander political goals.