Review: ... and His Lovely Wife by Connie Schultz

Today, in January Magazine’s biography section, contributing editor Mary Ward Menke reviews ... and His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man. by Pulitzer Prize winner Connie Schultz. Says Ward Menke:

Connie Schultz and Sherrod Brown, middle-aged and divorced with two children each, married in 2004. A year later, the Democratic Congressman from Ohio decided to give up his Congressional seat to run against Mike DeWine, a two-term Republican Senator, in a state where no Democrat had won office for 12 years. In ... and his Lovely Wife, Schultz writes candidly about the challenges facing her as an outspoken journalist, feminist and the wife of a political candidate: her newspaper’s decision not to endorse Brown; friendly co-workers who suddenly became adversaries and the growing consensus that a leave-of-absence from her job was in order; politicians’ wives who “saw themselves ... through the lens of their husbands’ lives” instead of as the talented individuals she knew them to be (“Honey, my husband is my career,” a senator’s wife told her); and the unexpected death of her adored father who had become an important part of the campaign. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

The full review is here.