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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 921 BRADY | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Brady's autobiography centers on one pivotal event the March 31, 1980 attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, the same shooting that disabled her husband. She describes their lives before and after the shooting, emphasizing how the unexpected can change the life-course of an entire family. She specifically details her activities as an anti-gun activist, and reacts to her recent cancer diagnosis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Readers get an intimate look at the events, both personal and professional, that shaped Brady's political career and the direction of U.S. gun legislation in this memoir of the lobbying life. She begins her story on March 30, 1981, when her husband, White House Press Secretary James Brady, was shot in an assassination attempt on President Reagan. His injury and recuperation, filled with close calls and setbacks, takes her on a journey that includes 15 years at the lobbying group Handgun Control, first as a volunteer, then as a board member and finally as its chair until 1996. Brady gives a detailed, suspenseful account of the struggle to pass the Brady bill, a handgun control law finally signed in 1993. Readers will take special interest in her recollections of high-profile politicians. Though she doesn't sling mud, Brady openly expresses her frustration with those who hindered the bill. A lifelong Republican (and an admirer of Reagan), Brady became disillusioned when Bush the elder effectively blocked passage of the bill, and she endorsed Clinton in 1992. Writing in unpretentious prose, she leads the reader from one fight to the next without stopping to feel sorry for herself even in the midst of husband's disability and her own current battle with lung cancer. The book will likely appeal to political enthusiasts and ardent gun-control supporters, and, though Brady is neither as iconoclastic nor as captivating a writer as Katharine Graham, fans of Graham's Personal History may enjoy this story of a determined woman in a male-dominated Washington. 8 pages b&w photos not seen by PW. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The spirited autobiography of the noted gun-control advocate and onetime Republican loyalist. A good fight, indeed: Brady emerges from these pages as nothing if not a scrapper, unwilling to give in to the raft of bad luck that's been her lot. First, of course, there was the shooting of her husband Jim, brain-damaged and confined to a wheelchair, thanks to would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley. Second was the slow discovery that their young son Scott suffered from sensory integration problems, which made him "something of a handful, to put it mildly." Third, and one of the most affecting moments of Brady's narrative, was her long and ongoing battle against lung cancer, brought on, she admits, by years of smoking and a once-insurmountable addiction to tobacco. Chapter by chapter, she meets all these tests head-on, writing of her work in agitating for national gun-control legislation, in helping Scott and Jim go about the difficult business of daily life, and of wrestling with her own doubts and shortcomings. Her mood is largely cheerful and even homey ("We always have beef for Christmas dinner"), though she fires off a few zingers here and there ("Charlton Heston, who later would become my chief adversary . . . struck me-I remember it vividly-as a pompous ass"). Brady tends toward platitude, confining her reflections on matters such as the Hinckley attempt to easily digested morsels: "God only knows what demons drove him to do what he did." But that's beside the point, and by the end, all but the most cynical reader will be rooting for Brady-and, likely, for the causes she espouses. Self-aware and committed, Brady offers an extended pep talk for women facing crises of their own, as well as a personal memoir-and it works on both levels.
Booklist Review
Advocacy for gun control after her husband, Jim Brady, was shot by the would-be assassin targeting President Reagan, and her own personal fight with lung cancer are the prominent good fights referred to in the title of Sarah Brady's memoir. She met Jim Brady while working in Washington, D.C., for the Republican Party. Jim was eventually named as Reagan's press secretary, heightening the couple's social and political profiles, and leading to the fateful day when he was shot. Their politics eventually changed to opposition to the Republican stance on gun control. Sarah Brady names names--who helped, who didn't, who switched sides, and who sat on the fence--in her David-and-Goliath struggle against the powerful lobby for the National Rifle Association. Her memoir also offers an inspiring story of coping with personal challenges, as Sarah recounts how the shooting affected her family life; her father's death from lung cancer; and her current struggle with lung cancer after a lifetime of heavy smoking. --Vanessa Bush
Library Journal Review
The leader of Handgun Control Inc. for several years and wife of Reagan Press Secretary James Brady, Brady chronicles her 20 years of coping with the shooting of her husband and his long rehabilitation, her entry into and extensive involvement with gun control efforts and the Brady Bill, her son's ADD, and her lung cancer. She includes interesting details on the legislative process and on her dealings with major political players on the issue of gun control, but this is not primarily a book about the politics of gun legislation. It is more about her inspiring determination and courage as she carries on through numerous serious setbacks. Brady also describes her political shift away from the Republican Party. Written with former Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report editor McLoughlin, this is her first book. While it may contain too many details about people the Bradys have known along the way, it is an engrossing story of a challenging life. Recommended for general readers at every public library. Mary Jane Brustman, SUNY at Albany Libs. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. IX |
| 1 The Day That Changed Everything | p. 1 |
| 2 "Miss Kemp, Don't You Worry" | p. 16 |
| 3 A Bear Named Brady | p. 30 |
| 4 An Inaugural Whirl | p. 46 |
| 5 God Bless the Greenfield Umbrella | p. 53 |
| 6 "Free the Bear" | p. 65 |
| 7 "I Hate John Hinckley!" | p. 76 |
| 8 The Turning Point | p. 85 |
| 9 The Birth of the Brady Bill | p. 95 |
| 10 Learning the Rules | p. 106 |
| 11 Cowardly Lions and Brainless Scarecrows | p. 115 |
| 12 Party Politics and Brass Knuckles | p. 128 |
| 13 "Just Tell Howard It's the Devil Herself" | p. 141 |
| 14 "If You Send Me the Brady Bill, I Will Sign It" | p. 152 |
| 15 The End of the Glory Years | p. 162 |
| 16 "You'll Be Seen by Millions" | p. 172 |
| 17 Growing Pains | p. 181 |
| 18 Back to Basics | p. 193 |
| 19 "This Is It, Then? My Life is Over?" | p. 200 |
| 20 Fighting Back | p. 209 |
| 21 Packing Heat | p. 219 |
| 22 Good News, Bad News | p. 227 |
| 23 Thanksgiving | p. 235 |
| Cast of Characters | p. 241 |
| Index | p. 245 |
