I am writing this review while golfing in California and enjoying the sunshine. Yesterday, my Republican golf buddy, sitting next to me in the golf cart, said, “This state has a governor who is famous only because of his looks.” My MAGA-adjacent friend is still open to a civil conversation about politics, up to a point. I suggested he read Young Man in a Hurry by Gavin Newsom before he assumes the Fox News version of the author is even remotely accurate.
I would loan him the book, but my friend is not a reader. The irony is that, like my friend, Newsom was not much of a reader as a young man because he is dyslexic, a condition I am familiar with. Newsom has a serious version of the disorder, and it shaped much of his early life. A few days ago, Donald Trump said Newsom should not become president because of his dyslexia. Trump is projecting more than just a phobia of people with disabilities.
I have read other memoirs by politicians who are more guarded than Newsom about their past, struggles, and even failures. He must have understood that his opponents would seize upon select sentences for their own political purposes. Yet, he does not shy away from being transparent with his readers.
There are some insights and quotes in Young Man that are too good not to share:
- In explaining how to cope with his condition, Newsom says, “This is how I discovered one of the secret powers of dyslexia. I could read a room with the best of them.”
- Newsom was appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors by Willie Brown, the city’s first black mayor. In announcing the appointment, Mayor Brown called the Irishman his “affirmative action pick.”
- In addressing the homeless issue as the new mayor in San Francisco, Newsom explained that, “No liberal bias was required to put forward the case that the one man most responsible for the rise of homelessness in America was California’s own sunny Ronald Reagan.” He went on to explain that among his first acts as president, Reagan had “gutted” Jimmy Carter’s Mental Health Systems Act, which removed $800 million earmarked for California.
Not to be missed in the final chapter is Newsom’s detailed description of his first meeting with President Trump when Newsom was Lieutenant Governor and Jerry Brown was Governor.