How did Kamala Harris stop the 107-day marathon campaign for the president? The story is yours now.
The former Vice President juggled the duties of the Vice President in her new memoir, “107 Days,” and gives a daily summary of the 2024 rapid election campaign. She writes she is unforgiving about her reactions and tensions to her debate performances between former Democrat Joe Biden, who doubted she could win, and fellow Tim Waltz.
Jonathan Carp, CEO of Simon & Schuster, who published the book in July, told The New York Times that he “read like a suspense novel.” Harris worked with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks to capture the essence of her memoir novel.
“The spirit is approaching the ‘Wing of the West’ or ‘Rocky’,” Carp told The Times.
Do you read “107 Days” as “like a suspense novel”?
In a nutshell: No
“107 Days” is a more chronological diary than a thriller. The daily chapters include a campaign trip for several pages, while others include a short explanation of the decisions regarding Harris’ Vice Presidential Agenda. This structure has its advantages as Harris conveys her promise to bring readers along on the campaign trail. However, dropping the name makes it impossible for “107 Days” to feel like a true story non-fiction, due to the policy summary.
Still, “107 Days” is a very easy-to-read memoir. Some moments have actually become snippets of thriller ratios, or fragments of your favorite political drama series, like royalty tests from the Biden administration, a chaotic “call to action” after Harris became a candidate, a preparatory montage of discussion, and a mysterious, unfinished side plot. And there are a lot of unfiltered curses, including Harris’ favorites.
Kamala Harris summarises Election Day Disappointment in “107 Days”
What makes Harris’ storytelling particularly suspenseful is her details on Election Day 2024. Starting with our final campaign in Michigan, hope begins high, but then reality soon begins to set. Harris’ team works and reworks a tentative message for the Howard University crowd, pulling her entirely out of speaking engagement as a sour figure. They pull out “Madame President” icing from the cupcakes and convert it into a common “comfortable food.”
“What I can do is repeat over and over again, “What will happen to my God, my God, our kingdom?” Harris writes.
Harris doesn’t finish his memoir with a tidy, hopeful message. She is open about where she and the party went wrong. Her afterword is a rather gloomy reflection on the Trump administration, and a lament of the policies she hopes Americans are alive now. She quotes journalist Françoise Giroud. “This is the beginning of fascism.”
“I wanted a table seat. I wanted to make a change from within the system,” Harris wrote of the beginning of politics. “Today, I’m no longer sure of that either, either, because systems are failing us. At all levels – enforcement, legislation, businesses, institutions, media – all guardrails that are supposed to protect our democracy are buckling. I thought those guardrails would be stronger.”
The non-fiction book, “Reads Like Fiction,” is a highly praised literary world. It is an unusual choice for Harris to work together with the author of “The Horse” Brooks for the political narrator, but what she was trying to achieve was a novel feeling. Brooks writes both non-fiction and fiction.
Harris’ “107 Days” might be a page-turner for political addicts, but if you’re looking for non-fiction that reads like a suspense novel, you might want to try something by Patrick Radden Keefe or Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy.”
Clare Mulroy is USA Today’s Books Reporter, covering Buzzy releases, chatting with authors and diving into the culture of reading. Find her On Instagramsubscribe every week Book Newsletter Or tell her what you’re reading cmulroy@usatoday.com.
