The good fight

We all know them: politicians' books that read as ifthey've been cobbled together from old speeches. TheGood Fight is as far from that as it is possible to get.In a voice that is flinty, real, and passion-filled, SenatorHarry Reid tells the tale of two places, intertwining his own story,particularly his early life of deep poverty in the tiny mining townof Searchlight, Nevada—"a place that boasted of thirteen brothelsand no churches"—with the cautionary tale of Washington,D.C.: "If I can do nothing greater in this book than explain thosetwo places to each other, then I will have done something important."Reid is inspired by obstacles. Brought up in a cabin withoutindoor plumbing, he hitchhiked forty-five miles across opendesert to high school. He worked full-time as a Capitol Hillpoliceman to get through law school, after the school refusedhim financial aid, telling him he wasn't cut out to be a lawyer. Ashead of the Nevada Gaming Commission, he led an unrelentingfight to clean up Las Vegas, despite four years of death threats—and much worse. And in Congress, Reid's spent more thantwenty-five years battling those who would take the country inthe wrong direction: "The radical ideologues degrade our government,so much so that when they are in charge of it, they donot know how to run it."And, always, it all comes back to Searchlight: "Who I amnow, and what I am doing now, began in that town, with thosepeople, in those mines." This book is the story of a man whoknows what a good fight is, because he has had to fight like hellfor everything his whole life. It is populated by a rich and raucouscast of great and failed men, eccentrics, visionaries, gangsters,and presidents who make up his life and times. And it is for allthose who not only like a good story, but wonder what we shoulddo now in America.