MixedThe Los Angeles Times...meant to be an uplifting memoir about her impressive rise from middle-class Syracuse, N.Y., girl to one of America’s most successful news anchors, yet it’s her painful and disturbing account of what it means to be a high-profile female journalist in the age of Fox News, Twitter and Trump that resonates ... timing the book to come out a week after the election feels like somewhat of a cop out. Still, as Kelly’s personal story, the book is a testament to her resolve ... In prose that is simple, clean and straightforward, Kelly comes across in the book as casual and warm one minute, formal and stiff the next. It’s a duality that reflects her on-screen personality ... when she writes about her role at Fox, that personal awareness vanishes behind the tired gripes of the right about liberal values that we’ve grown accustomed to over a decade or more of brutally partisan media.
Randa Jarrar
MixedThe Los Angeles TimesHer own experience of moving between continents and cultures is reflected all over Him, Me, Muhammad Ali, through characters that always seem to be searching for that one place where they fit in. Often, they don’t, so it’s the nebulous in-between space where their lives unravel ... This collection is not flowery or sentimental, like many personal stories about the immigrant experience or Middle Eastern family life can be. It’s instead sharp and irreverent, sometimes even unapologetically crude ... when Jarrar’s sense of humor tangles with her character’s feelings of estrangement, the results are often charming and funny — in a bittersweet sort of way ... Many of the stories in Him, Me, Muhammad Ali have been published elsewhere, over a wide span of years (it has been eight years since her novel was published). That explains the inconsistent tone that is refined and detailed one minute, reckless and immature the next. And around half of these short stories don’t feel fully explored or finished. They are unique and original but sometimes lack a satisfying conclusion or realization.
