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See this item's eligibility during checkout.Health, Mind & Body | Home » » » The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Writings on Politics, Family, and Fate | | | | | | | Description: | | One of Washington's finest writers on people, politics, and life-collected for the first time Marjorie Williams knew Washington from top to bottom. Beloved for her sharp analysis, elegant prose and exceptional ability to intuit character, Williams wrote political profiles for the Washington Post and Vanity Fair that came to be considered the final word on the capital's most powerful figures. Her accounts of playing ping-pong with Richard Darman, of Barbara Bush's stepmother quaking with fear at the mere thought of angering the First Lady, and of Bill Clinton angrily telling Al Gore why he failed to win the presidency-to name just three treasures collected here-open a window on a seldom-glimpsed human reality behind Washington's determinedly blank faade. Williams also penned a weekly column for the Post's op-ed page and epistolary book reviews for the online magazine Slate. Her essays for these and other publications tackled subjects ranging from politics to parenthood. During the last years of her life, she wrote about her own mortality as she battled liver cancer, using this harrowing experience to illuminate larger points about the nature of power and the randomness of life. Marjorie Williams was a woman in a man's town, an outsider reporting on the political elite. She was, like the narrator in Randall Jarrell's classic poem, "The Woman at the Washington Zoo," an observer of a strange and exotic culture. This splendid collection-at once insightful, funny and sad-digs into the psyche of the nation's capital, revealing not only the hidden selves of the people that run it, but the messy lives that the rest of us lead. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Marjorie Williams | | Paperback:
| 365 pages | | Publisher:
| PublicAffairs | | Publication Date:
| October 01, 2006 | | Package Length:
| 8.2 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.5 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.2 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.7 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 29 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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 Very interesting insights into life in Washington, DCFeb 24, 2010
I have given this book to two friends who have enjoyed it. I enjoyed this writer's insight into life in Washington, especially her view with famous people like Al Gore and Barbara Bush. Her own personal stories dealing with her terminal illness were very touching and leave you with feelings that you will never forget.
As good in retrospectJan 31, 2010
Marjorie Williams wrote political profiles in Washington for a number of years, before her death from liver cancer in 2005. She was a wife, a mother, and a keen observer of the political scene and the players. This book is a collection of her columns, essays, and profiles compiled by her husband, Timothy Noah, after her death. It is a valuable, informative, and poignant legacy.
Among the profiles are people who were largely little known -- e.g., Gwendolyn Cafritz -- outside of Washington social circles, and those who were in the headlines daily at one time or another -- e.g., Bill Clinton -- and about whom much is known, but not all. Others, such as Jeb Bush, are familiar but mysterious figures. These are not profiles that flatter or ignore the faults which, had many voters known, might have given pause at the polls.
Another aspect of this collection are essays about Williams, her family, and in the end, her diagnosis of cancer. The ensuing battle to know all, to survive the disease, is poignant and tells much about her and her relationship with her family, with life, and finally with death. One might call the book schizophrenic in this regard. However one views the differing subjects, it is an interesting read, especially in retrospect, after all has been said and done in this people's lives.
Yet many of them live on, as in the case of Bill Clinton, who along with George Bush, just won't go away. Women should read the essay on the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas and the pilloring of Anita Hill, even by the women and their groups that should have supported her. There are still lessons to learn here, people and events of which we should be reminded.
People who read and enjoy this book might also enjoy The Nine by Toobin or Losing the News by Alex Jones.
 A wonderful Book!Jan 30, 2010
What an entertaining book written by an extremely bright and talented person. Her insight into politics and Washington D.C. were spot on and very entertaining! She tells great stories, sad we lost her too soon. Thankful her husband put this book together - it's a great tribute to Ms. Williams.
Inside the Beltway and Inside the Life of Marjorie WilliamsonApr 26, 2009
This is an amazing and wonderful book. It is also poignantly sad because the author, Marjorie Williamson, died recently from liver cancer. This book was put together posthumously by her husband, Tim Noah, who is a reporter for the online magazine Salon.com.
The book is formatted as a collection of essays. Ms. Williamson spent many of her years in the D.C. area as a reporter and formed close and intimate relationships with many of the movers and shakers in politics. Many of the essays are about political figures or political issues. One of my favorites is about the relationship between Al Gore and Bill Clinton.
Another section of the book is structured as a memoir. Ms. Williamson finds out that she has liver cancer and knows that her days are numbered. She writes about her life as a wife, mother, reporter and woman coping with liver cancer. She writes beautifully. Her words have the force of thunder. They can be so brutally honest that you jump from your chair. She can also be gentle and lyrical so that the reader feels like they are inside a song without words rather than a book. Her writing is a marvel. I wish more people had read this book. Her writing left me enriched and changed, something only a fine piece of art has the power to do.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
4.5 stars: the best are very, very goodMay 14, 2007
I used to read Marjorie Williams in the Washington Post, and was reminded of her work when her exceptionally moving essay "Hit by Lightning" was in a "best of" book by multiple authors. It was so good that I simply had to read this collection of only her work.
The finest essays and profiles here are wonderful. The writing is outstanding, and ranges from great insight to humor and sadness and to the biting remark that takes down somebody famous a notch or two.
My favorites were (besides "Hit by Lightning"):
- "The Alchemist", a previously unpublished profile of her mother. What an exploration of a mother's relationship to her daughter and (presumably) perceptive view of her mother's life!
- "Scenes from a Marriage" - oh, my, how it drills into the relationship between Clinton and Gore, after the 2004 election and back into their time in office. This essay was justifiably well-known.
- "Bill Clinton, Feminist" - Ms. Williams shreds the feminists who defended President Clinton in his sexual escapades, while disregarding the women involved. She doesn't even break a sweat. Brutal and delightful reading.
- "The Halloween of My Dreams" - her final column, about her daughter's Halloween, the last Halloween Ms. Williams would see.
- The profiles of Jeb Bush and Barbara Bush, both of which offered fresh insights and information.
- Of the columns, many of which are first rate, I particularly liked the one on Princess Diana's death (I'm not sure why, to be honest) and one on assisted suicide.
The book actually got off to a slow start for me. The first two profiles were relatively dated and uninteresting, and the third, on Richard Darman, was wonderfully crafted, but I found myself not that curious about someone who moved rapidly into footnote status. However, Darman's profile had one of the best lines in the entire book: "As always, the vapor of self-certainty leaks off him like rocket fuel". Didn't these people know who they were up against in Marjorie Williams?
The short columns included are mostly very good, yet they also suffer from the usual fate of newspaper columns, in that they don't age that well, as the topic in hand often quickly becomes old news. Ms. Williams is far from alone in that fate, of course, so some of these pieces serve as a reminder of past news to reconsider with hindsight and contemplate what has happened since.
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