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A review by charlottejones952
Moving Forward: A Story of Hope, Hard Work, and the Promise of America by Karine Jean-Pierre
3.0
Since the 2016 election of Donald Trump, I have been plugged into American politics; whether it be reading countless books on the topic, watching American news shows, or reading British coverage of the happenings, I'm fascinated. Karine Jean-Pierre is one of the faces I've seen across the coverage so when I saw she had a book out I was intrigued to learn more about her story.
A Haitian gay black woman in today's America, Karine gives insight into an upbringing very different from my own. She delves into the secrecy perpetuated in Haitian culture, stigma surrounding mental health issues, the problem with affiliating yourself with a political candidate and much more. For the most part, my attention was grabbed and I needed to learn more about the idea of canvassing and campaigning for a particular candidate. This was particularly interesting when it came to the portions about Obama.
However, there were a few things that lowered my opinion of this book and the first one was the medium itself. I listened to Move Forward on audiobook and unfortunately, despite the author's eloquence on television, I found the narration to be stilted with odd pauses in the middle of sentences. Also there are some tough topics discussed including suicide, sexual violence and sexual abuse and I felt that these were handled quite clumsily. Of course it is Karine Jean-Pierre's story so it is hers to tell, but I felt like these topics came up out of the blue and were spoken about in such a matter of fact way that it was difficult to concentrate for a few minutes after each of these sections. I'm glad that she was honest about difficulties in her life but I feel that some people may be triggered by the way they were presented.
Overall, I sped through this book and it gave me a real insight into the life of Karine Jean-Pierre. If you are interested in American politics and are familiar with the author's television appearances, you may enjoy it but I feel that it would be better read on the page rather than listened to.
3 out of 5 stars!
A Haitian gay black woman in today's America, Karine gives insight into an upbringing very different from my own. She delves into the secrecy perpetuated in Haitian culture, stigma surrounding mental health issues, the problem with affiliating yourself with a political candidate and much more. For the most part, my attention was grabbed and I needed to learn more about the idea of canvassing and campaigning for a particular candidate. This was particularly interesting when it came to the portions about Obama.
However, there were a few things that lowered my opinion of this book and the first one was the medium itself. I listened to Move Forward on audiobook and unfortunately, despite the author's eloquence on television, I found the narration to be stilted with odd pauses in the middle of sentences. Also there are some tough topics discussed including suicide, sexual violence and sexual abuse and I felt that these were handled quite clumsily. Of course it is Karine Jean-Pierre's story so it is hers to tell, but I felt like these topics came up out of the blue and were spoken about in such a matter of fact way that it was difficult to concentrate for a few minutes after each of these sections. I'm glad that she was honest about difficulties in her life but I feel that some people may be triggered by the way they were presented.
Overall, I sped through this book and it gave me a real insight into the life of Karine Jean-Pierre. If you are interested in American politics and are familiar with the author's television appearances, you may enjoy it but I feel that it would be better read on the page rather than listened to.
3 out of 5 stars!