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The I Index

Kamala’s Way: An American Life

Bottom of the pile

9

/100

I Index Overall Rating

Readers

1/100

Critics

16/100

Scholars

N/A

Author:

Dan Morain

Publisher:

Simon & Schuster

Date:

January 12, 2021

A veteran California journalist takes a look back at Vice President Kamala Harris's coming up, from childhood to college through Golden State politics—all the way to the steps of the White House.

What The Reviewers Say

Martha S. Jones,
The Washington Post
Morain gives readers the public Harris on her own terms: a leader who rose to power in the crowded terrain of California politics.
Tunku Varadarajan,
The Wall Street Journal
As Dan Morain makes plain in this detailed and dutiful biography, Ms. Harris is notably less moderate (or, if you’d prefer, more progressive) than Mr. Biden—and so, naturally, a source of strength to voters on the left.
Patrick Ryan,
USA Today
Kamala's Way isn't particularly revelatory, dryly detailing her early days in the Alameda County district attorney's office in California, as well as the political allies and adversaries she encountered during her rise. Although meticulously reported, it occasionally reads like a slapdash Wikipedia page rather than a compelling narrative. But after the circus of the outgoing presidential administration, there is a level of comfort reading an exhaustive account of a lawmaker just putting in the work. It isn't a mere puff piece either, as Morain rightfully holds Harris accountable for her past support of capital punishment and mass incarceration policies..
Charles Kaiser,
The Guardian (UK)
Dan Morain...doesn’t have any scoops in Kamala’s Way. He has done a workmanlike job of assessing her passions and her accomplishments. But often his best details are lifted directly from her own autobiography.