A Book I Wish I Had Written

I just read an astonishing book! I downloaded it to my Kindle without knowing exactly what to expect. Gail Collins, the author of When Everything Changed, is my new hero. The book is a history of the women’s movement in the U.S. from the first suffragette to Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin. But it’s so much more than that.

All the way through the book are stories of ordinary women, feminist luminaries, and political leaders. The interviews bring them to life as only a seasoned journalist can do. Then, at the end of the book, Collins brings us up to date on where each of the women she interviewed was at the time of publication. Her acknowledgments include the names of the hundreds of women she interviewed for this book. At the end, are marvelous photographs of women whose contributions made such a difference to the women's movement.

This is the kind of book I would love to have written. I couldn’t put it down. As one piece of history followed another I found I was learning things I never knew, meeting women I wish I’d known, and reliving my own life through other people’s stories. There were so many events and was so heroism that were revelations, including the role women played in the Civil Rights Movement.

But what made this an extraordinary reading experience was Gail Collins’s writing. I have a short list of nonfiction writers I admire—Gail Sheehy, Gloria Steinem, Jane Howard, Joan Borysenko—and would be thrilled to write as well as they do. Gail Collins has just made the list.