• Although Harris shares bits of her personal life, the book mainly focuses on the American story as the subtitle of the book is suggests: ‘An American journey’.
• The book starts by getting right into business, where Harris relives 2016 when election results were streaming in and it became apparent that Donald Trump was winning.
Kamala Harris’s memoir The truths we hold reads like the CV of a highly ambitious achiever.
I may be late to the party of reading and reviewing the book, however, better late than never. With Harris’s meteoric rise to now become the Vice President of the US – the first black person and first woman to do so – I wanted to read her memoir to get more insight on her experiences.
The straight to the point, insightful and at points, emotional memoir, shares Harris’s experiences and ties it up with the human condition – the struggles, injustices, highs and lows that are life – not just from the perspective of her personal journey, but of many she has met along the way of her steady rise from prosecutor to Senator for California (by the time the book was released).
Although Harris shares bits of her personal life, the book mainly focuses on the American story as the subtitle of the book is suggests: ‘An American journey’.
The book starts by getting right into business, where Harris relives 2016 when election results were streaming in and it became apparent that Donald Trump was winning.
Although there was much to celebrate from her own win of the California Senate seat, she and her campaign team and friends who had gathered in anticipation of her win had their joy short circuited by the realization that Trump was going to be in charge of the new administration.
She recounts how she had to abandon her victory speech, in which she had referred to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, assuming she would win, and come up with something new to say. And her message was that: the people had to roll up their sleeves and get to work because with the new administration, they couldn’t sit back and watch all that Barrack Obama fought for the common person be obliterated by Trump, who was pro- big corporations, and was disrespectful to women among other shortcomings.
Harris criticizes Trump and his decisions throughout the book without directly mentioning his name; she only mentions him once. From his bid to reverse the gains made through the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as ‘Obamacare’; to his cutting taxes for rich and greedy corporates, she expresses her lack of confidence in the 45th President of the US.
Harris ties in her personal experiences with those of ordinary Americans she encountered on her journey from prosecutor, to district Attorney, to California Attorney General to Senator.
Hers is a steady rise, which is mirrored throughout her family.
Her mother was a cancer researcher, her father (whom she doesn’t talk much about) was an economist and her only other sibling – sister Maya – was a high powered woman who worked for several top organisations and was at a point a senior policy adviser for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign.
The most personal parts of the book are where she talks about growing up and how her parents met through being members of the civil rights movement and how her mother – Shyamala – was a bold woman from whom she learnt to be ambitious and hardworking. Harris spoke about how Shyamala – an Indian - broke away from the grain by choosing to go study abroad – in the US – and marrying her father – a Jamaican. The two separated when Harris was young and Maya a baby – a fact that she says she felt bad about because while she didn’t get to grow up with both parents around, at least she experienced her father’s presence albeit for a few years; however, her younger sister was too young and basically grew up with a single mother.
As an example of how Harris entwines her life’s personal experiences with those of the common American, she spoke of how her mother struggled to buy a home for them as a single mother and how proud it made her after saving for years. She then shone a spotlight on the economic crisis in the US in 2008 and how thousands of families lost their homes because they were unable to pay their mortgages and their homes were foreclosed on. She castigated banks for taking advantage of Americans who dreamt of owning homes for years and worked hard to do so, only to have them snatched away because of defaulting, sometimes on just one month’s mortgage payment.
Another time Harris lets us into her personal life while bringing out the common American’s experiences is where she briefly explains how she met and got married to her husband Doug in 2014. Before writing about how they met, Harris spoke about the fight for recognition of gay marriages and how it was stifled several times. She then goes into how her friend played matchmaker and linked her up with Doug – a lawyer.
She spoke of the challenges as a high powered woman dating at an age society considers to be late - her forties. She and Doug, however hit it off and he took no time saying that he liked Harris and wanted a serious relationship. Doug was a divorcee and Harris says she and his ex get along well – so well that she sometimes thinks they are too ‘functional’ for a blended family. Doug’s two children refer to her as ‘momala’ a portmanteau for mom and Kamala as they didn’t want to refer to her as step-mom.
Another time Harris gets personal is when she talks about her mother being diagnosed with cancer and how she soldiered on. Harris also used the personal story to talk about the failures in the health care system. How top pharmaceutical companies were more focused on their bottom line than people’s lives. She called out the administration for failing to negotiate for better prices for drugs, saying that pharmaceuticals had great power and lobbied to defeat any process that would cut their profits.
Despite her meteoric rise in her career, there were moments Harris faced challenges, which she explains.
One such instance was when she was still at university – Howard – and had gotten an internship at the District Attorney’s office before graduating. Because she was so bright, she was offered a role as the deputy district attorney when she completed her bar exams as it was assumed that she would pass.
However, she failed and she couldn’t believe it. Harris watched as other interns transitioned into roles as she continued to work and wait to resit her exams. She remembered one worker having a conversation with a colleague and wondering how she could fail because ‘she is so smart’. The humbling experience did not stop her and the office was nice enough to hold the job for Harris until she resat the exams, which she did and passed.
Another moment of trial was when she temporarily lost the California Attorney General race and she was unaware of the voting numbers as she went out to address a press conference and told she was still hopeful she had a chance. Harris writes how her communications manager stepped to the stage and told her to get off immediately and she didn’t understand why. As she left, she recounts an awkward moment when a reporter asked her what she thought happened (in this case, he meant, why she thought she lost the race), but since she still thought she was in the race, she gave a baffling answer saying she thought she had run a great race and that it was going to be a long night (of vote counting).
She said she later found out that her hometown newspaper – San Francisco Chronicle - had called the race in favour of her opponent. She recounted feeling like she had been punched in the gut. Later on, however, numbers had changed and weeks later, her opponent called said he would be announcing he had conceded defeat. These are some of the instances Harris uses to show why she is resilient.
Harris ends her final chapter with some of the lessons she has learned, from ensuring that even though you are the first to achieve something, you should make sure you’re not the last.
The end of the book puts together a long list of acknowledgements. And it is clear to see why they come at the end rather than the beginning – because there are many.
Harris, throughout her books lists the many friends, partners and collaborators she has had in her journey that have made it a success. And even now as Vice President, she continues to outline the role of those before her in helping her get to where she is today. She usually talks of standing on the shoulders of those who came before her.
Overall, the book is insightful, and tells of the realities of gaps and of every country – even what is thought to be the most powerful country in the world. It shows that every country has its shortcomings, after all, they are all led by human beings, who have faults.