The subtitle of Samantha Power’s “The Education of an Idealist” calls the book a “memoir,” but it is properly termed an autobiography, beginning as it does with the author’s childhood and recounting each life-phase up to the present. Ms. Power served in the Obama administration, first as a member of the National Security Council and from 2013 to 2017 as ambassador to the United Nations. The book is too long. Unless you’re a gifted writer, which Ms. Power is not, the job of U.N. ambassador does not justify an account of this size.
There are some memorable moments, mainly at the book’s beginning. Ms. Power was born to Irish parents and raised until age 6 in Dublin; her father was brilliant but hopelessly addicted to alcohol, and her mother left him for a new life in America in 1979, bringing Samantha and her brother with her. Her recollection of last seeing her father—a little drunk but calling for Sam to come back—is very moving.
