Excellent! Makes politics read like a novel. Highly informative about the American policy process. ( )

One of the best pieces of non-fiction I've ever read. ( )

I very much appreciate the perspective that DeParle brings to this project. He is able to write about the overarching political environment that brought about the pledge to "end welfare as we know it" and to recount the experiences of the three women in the subtitle to show that there are no simple answers and there are no simple categories to dump people into. DeParle eloquently evokes the flexibility and resourcefulness of the women of whom he writes and of their victories, even as their limitations, often seemingly self-imposed, work against them.

Long after I first read this book and started recommending it to people, I saw DeParle mentioned in one of Sr. Helen Prejean's books as a sympathetic journalist. His is a fine pedigree, looking into issues that most people want to sweep under the rug. ( )