Madelein Allbright's Madam Secretary

It is incredibly refreshing to read commentary by a political figure that is intelligent, well thought-out, capable of irony and self-deprecation on one hand, and sarcasm on the other. The last couple of years made us forget that there are politicians capable of constructing complete, gramatically correct English sentences with legitimate English words that actually mean something, instead of platitudes about evil-doers and non-sensical tautologies like "These are things we don't know we don't know" (courtesy of Mr. Rumsfield, of course). Madam Allbright's book is a breezy read, happy and amusing in places, sad and poignant in others.

Here life is plenty interesting, from her family's flight from Chekhoslovakia to her ascendancy among Washington's elite. The book ends up bursting at the seams without her once mentioning what she had for breakfast. Especially sad for me is the story of her family's double-flight from their homecountry, and her discovery of jewish anscestry. While some people claim a general gullibility and impossibility of such a thing being kept hidden, from my personal experience I know that to not be true: my parents did their best and I never heard the word "jew" until some visiting friends casually asked my parents about it at dinner, when I was already in high school. Needless to say, I had no clue.

If you never read a political autobiography (not a genre I am normally a fan of), do give this one a try. Nested between an interesting life story and a heap of political anecdotes are descriptions of events that happened sufficiently recently that they are still remembered well. Having read this book, I have much better understanding of all interconnections, meaning of certain events, and their effects, as well how certain processes work (the failure of israeli-palestinian negotiations, among other things). Allbright's book is like a piece of history written too soon, of which we are a part of.