Notorious Rbg

by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I think it’s important to know about the people who are trying to change the world for the better.

I’l confess that I became aware of RBG around the time of the 2008 campaigns and I am (always have been) woefully disconnected from politics. I was raised fiercely Republican and Ruth Bader Ginsberg was not exactly a household name for my parents. Saying the name “Bill Clinton” was akin to dropping an f-bomb in my house, so you can imagine my family wasn’t crazy about his Supreme Court nominees, either.

If you’re read my blog, you can probably surmise that as I’ve become an independent agent and educated myself, my views have shifted. These days, I wish my younger self had been more aware of women like Ruth Bader Ginsberg, because she’s exactly the type of person I idolize now.

This book is a series of glimpses. While I prefer most my biographies to be chronological (for my brain organization) I appreciated the anecdotes and stories about RBG’s life and career scattered throughout The Notorious RBG. The book starts near the beginning, with a young Ruth just wanting to make her mother proud. This novel does a good job of painting RBG as a person – while Kate McKinnon’s RBG on Saturday Night Live is one of my favorite impressions, it’s clear early in the book that she’s a more timid person. Fierce, but not outgoing. For some reason, I think I like her all the more for that? It shows that you don’t need to be proud to fight for your beliefs.

There’s a lot of little gems scattered throughout The Notorious RBG. I liked that there was a storyline about her marriage and husband, who was always supportive and apparently an amazing cook. I liked the discussion about her Supreme Court cases, but also her relationships with the other judges… but on and off the bench.

As far as a biography goes, I really enjoyed The Notorious RBG for entertainment and interest value, but unlike many other biographies and autobiographies, I never felt like I was getting a full picture. Just as I was settling in to hear about her time teaching, we were suddenly in 2006, learning about what it was like for her after Justice O’Connor stepped down. And a moment later we were back in law school. It was jumbled enough that even though the bits were interesting, it all felt like more of a taste than an actual story.

If you’re interested in the story of a true feminist, or simply want to hear a little more about a true icon in American history, The Notorious RBG is a great place to start. RBG lights up these pages with her hope and persistence in the human spirit. I can’t imagine a world without her sitting on the Supreme Court, and I hope I don’t have to anytime soon (P.S. she can do 20 push ups at a time, which I definitely cannot do).