Helga without the H

Four star review, originally posted here on June 27th, 2025:

This was an interesting memoir, to be sure. I had never heard of Nancy French or her husband before, but the idea of a ghost writer telling their own story was compelling to me. Before reading the book, I was under the impression that it would be more political, and would focus primarily on the author’s shifting political views. There was some of that, but it was nowhere near as central or in-depth as I’d expected. Instead, this as a life’s story, and the shift in the political landscape and this shift’s affect on her life was only one piece (albeit an important piece) in her long and fascinating life.

One element that I found lacking was an explanation of WHY French considers herself a conservative. We know that she started off life in a conservative Christian community, so there’s that. But from that point forward, French’s life takes her through twists and turns, often quite traumatic twists and turns, that force her to realign or refocus her beliefs. She comes to realize, over and over again, that “the church” is not the beacon of flawless morality it claims to be. But she doesn’t abandon her personal faith; instead, she finds her own connections with God directly while rejecting the hypocritical individuals and institutions who claim to speak for God. French goes through similar experiences with the Republican party, as she is shocked to find her fellow conservatives embracing sexual predators (or more precisely, one very famous orange-faced sexual predator), and abandoning all of their conservative beliefs to do so. From there French goes on to list many, many grievances she has with the current Republican party, such as racism. She states that she has basically left the Republican party (or rather, the Republican party left her), but in the same way that she does not become an atheist when the church disappoints her, she does not become a liberal when the party disappoints her. Instead, she and her husband are textbook never-Trumpers. That’s all fine, I guess, but at no point does she explain WHY she actually likes conservatism at all. She apparently has strong political beliefs (she literally tells us this repeatedly), but she doesn’t really explain them. Instead, we get plenty of specific examples of points where she diverges from conservative beliefs. We know she really hates Hilary Clinton, but we have no idea why. I would have found a deeper explanation to be enlightening here, because without that explanation, she just comes across as insufferable in any section where politics are mentioned.

With that one critique aside, I otherwise found this to be a really interesting story. Do I agree with French on all of her beliefs (from the bits I could piece together)? Nope. Do I think we’d get along if we met? I dunno, probably not. But she tells a compelling story, and I really appreciated her vulnerability, and her candid explanation of how her impressions of the world have changed over time. So far I’ve talked about political stuff, and that’s how the book’s marketed, but the much more central theme of this book is about sexual assault, and how we understand and respond to this violence as individuals, and as a society. I was seething with rage on French’s behalf as she described her victimization by a youth pastor, but I was seething with much, much, MUCH more rage in the aftermath as we learn how others responded at the news. The effects of this victimization in early life end up shaping French’s most important work later in life, which is both a silver lining for her abuse (she was able to help others to some degree), but also almost a re-victimization as we realize that, decades later and even with a strong voice to fight on victims’ behalves, society still doesn’t give a shit.

On a final, less-depressing note, I wish French had named more names where her ghost-writing clients were concerned, or had given us more details about her ghost-writing experiences. We do a bit of a jump from when she gets her first bite at the apple working with Bristol Palin (the only named client in the entire memoir, I believe), to her suddenly having a full career as a ghost writer. We know she’s had several NYT bestsellers, she gives vague brief descriptions of a few clients, and I think we can probably look up her credits on Goodreads for a fuller picture. But otherwise we’re light on ghost-writing content, and instead jump to the part where her famous clients start dropping her. I was surprised to learn (unless I misunderstood it), that politicians hire ghost writers for opinion articles and political statements, and not just for memoirs. But beyond that, we don’t learn much about ghost writing as a profession, nor do we learn anything about the individuals for whom she wrote. I assume there’s probably legal reasons for this (NDAs and whatnot), and a desire to keep the story focused on French herself, rather than her famous clients. My curiosity was piqued, yet left unsatisfied.

Stay away from this book if you’re a left-leaning individual who just can’t stand reading from a conservative point of view (in other words, this is not a how-I-became-a-liberal story, so if you’re expecting that, you’ll be disappointed.) And stay away from it if you were hoping for a primarily-political book. Otherwise, I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys compelling memoirs.