Love Her, Love Her Not: The Hillary Paradox

Bamberger assembles 28 essays by women who, contrary to the title, generally seem to love Hillary Clinton. Although there are demurrers, even those praise her for one thing or another; for example, Emily Zanotti wittily asks “Without Hillary Clinton, What Would Conservatives Have to Write About?” The most thought-provoking and noteworthy entries, all issue-based appraisals, are KJ Dell’Antonia’s “Embracing the Parents’ Agenda for the Win?” and Veronica I. Arreola’s “Inspecting Hillary’s Privilege Knapsack,” both of which address family and women’s issues, and Jaime Franchi’s “Hillary the Hawk?”, which challenges Clinton’s stance on military involvement. More often, however, the contributors focus on how Clinton influenced their own personal lives and political development. Many stray into familiar distractions: Clinton’s clothes (Bamberger’s opening essay is a paean to the pantsuit), likability and authenticity, and marriage. (Only nine contributors make no mention of Bill Clinton.) The idea of an all-female discussion of Clinton is promising, but redundancy creeps into the collection, which will most please those who share, in the words of Bamberger’s introduction, an “endless fascination with all things Hillary.” (Nov.)