The New York Times
"... an entertaining, bouncy romp ... illuminating ... Harpaz also gives a frank account of what it was like to be the mother of two children while following an energy-devouring campaign like this one. ... Harpaz has written an honest book. The result is an insider's view of a female reporter grappling with a groundbreaking campaign."
Kirkus Reviews
"exhilarating reading ... solid and worthwhile"
Publishers Weekly
"insightful, honest and funny ... Harpaz's eye for detail and razor-sharp wit should appeal to an audience beyond just political junkies."
Chicago Sun-Times
"...one of the most enjoyable campaign books I've ever read"
Washingtonian Magazine
"... hilarious, knowing and lively"
Buffalo News
"...a smart writer with comic flair"
Columbia Journalism Review
"...great fun...refreshing, even endearing"
US News&World Report
Washington Whispers column named a BEST WEB PICK.
Gail Sheehy, author of Hillary's Choice
"Just like The Boys on the Bus did a generation ago, The Girls in the Van gives us an intimate portrait, upfront and personal, of a major political campaign."
Bruce Morton, CNN National Correspondent
"Some of the best insights I've read into the woman who is our most famous, and most mysterious senator."
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Beth Harpaz, The Girls in the Van
 Book
Description
Thirty years ago, a bestseller called The Boys on the Bus chronicled the macho world of the male reporters who covered the McGovern-Nixon campaign. The Girls in the Van: Covering Hillary is an update, 30 years later, with a focus on women in politics, women in the media, why Hillary is so controversial, and the everyday struggles of working mothers. (This may be the only political book ever written with a chapter on potty-training--a subject the author discussed with Hillary, not realizing their conversation was being taped and would later air as the lead item on the 11 p.m. TV news!)
The Girls in the Van is a funny, breezy, politically neutral diary of the campaign, including enough gossip, inside jokes, bad food and silly songs to remind you of summer camp. Veteran Associated Press reporter Beth Harpaz follows Hillary from the moment she dons a black pantsuit and a Yankees cap and declares her love for a state where she has never lived, all the way to her historic victory as the only first lady to ever win elective office.
The book is a front-row seat in the press van as Hillary takes a "My Fair Lady"-style Yiddish lesson, tours black churches, and spends as much time explaining why she kissed Yassir Arafat's wife as she does justifying why she stays married to Bill. Meet Chelsea as she stumps for her mother, the Secret Service agents who drove reporters crazy, and the campaign staffers who live to spin. Watch reporters agonize over leads and deadlines, hop in a tiny press plane following the candidate in upstate New York, and get the inside scoop from a Christmas party at the White House, the garden of the Clintons' Westchester home, and finally, the election night scene where Hillary claimed victory.
Author's
Bio
Beth Harpaz joined The Associated Press in 1988 and has covered everything from plane crashes to trials to politics. Her coverage of Hillary Clinton's historic Senate campaign appeared in newspapers all over the country, but she wrote The Girls in the Van to give readers the stories that never made it onto the wire.
Harpaz has won feature-writing awards from The New York Press Club and the Newswomen's Association of New York. She lives in New York with her husband and two sons.
Her next book, Finding Annie Farrell, is due out from St. Martin's Press in 2003. It tells the true story of five sisters from Maine who survived a tragic childhood--a mother who died in childbirth, a father who went to jail, the children split up and raised by strangers--yet who remained close. Their family memories, with each sister recalling the stories slightly differently, revolve around the only sister who is deceased--a soldier's wife named Annie Farrell. Finding Annie Farrell chronicles the everyday lives, hopes, sorrows and triumphs of pre-feminist era wives and mothers from the "invisible generation"--the female equivalent of "The Greatest Generation."
Contact the author at author@girlsinthevan.com.
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