Conversations: Straight Talk with America's Sister President. - book reviews

Black Enterprise, Nov, 1993 by Marjorie Whigham-Desir

The most compelling feature of Kristin Clark Taylor's book, The First To Speak: A Woman of Color Inside The White House, is its title. After that, it's a rather lackluster affair. And that's too bad because Taylor is quite a woman with a story worth knowing about.

At age 23, this Detroit-born daughter of race-proud strivers was a launching editorial board member of USA Today. Five years later she became a media spokesperson for Vice President George Bush and, after his election as President, White House director of media relations. Regardless of your political bent, there's no denying that Taylor is a positive role model, an exemplar of black can-do. You only wish she had done more with this book.

The First To Speak is only slightly more stimulating than a socialite's chatterings about all the grand fetes she's hosted and "dahling" people she's known. Taylor spends too much ink on peoples' looks, coifs and wardrobes and such other mundane issues as shopping expeditions for the Inaugural Ball.

Yes, Taylor has a right to precious memories, but some substantive discourse on politics, the manipulations (and manipulating) of the media, and what it means (at least to her) to be a black Republican would have made for a better book.

Another thing that's likely to make some readers go "ugh" is that for all Taylor's references to faith in and reliance on God, her reminiscences of George Bush border on hero worship.

This front stairs at the White House memoir has strengths. The book's bass line - Taylor's tribute to her parents for a values-packed upbringing and her rally for black excellence - is instructive. The absence of trendy and gratuitous dirt-dishing is also refreshing and commendable.