Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Ben Bradlee, First Lady Hillary Clinton…what writer wouldn’t give their eye teeth to work with these marquee names? Barbara Feinman Todd worked with them all. In her behind-the-curtain memoir, Pretend I’m Not Here (Harper Collins), a phrase she employed to put certain self-conscious interviewees at ease, she deftly and at times hilariously describes her rise from Washington Post copy aide to journalism professor and ghostwriter/book collaborator to an august group of public figures. Along the way, there were unexpected outcomes—“birthing” a village, testifying before a Senate hearing and wrestling with a devastating betrayal, whose drama harked back to a warning she had received in a totally different context, but one she considered an apt metaphor for political Washington: “Washington’s a swamp; no one gets out alive.” But, Feinman Todd more than got out alive. She reclaimed her own story, one she feared had been lost in her total absorption of others’ stories, and gifted us with this insightful record as evidence.
Published: NYCitywoman.com
Published: NYCitywoman.com