Beck Dorey-Stein is a former White House stenographer who tells all about her time working next to greatness in her memoir From the Corner of the Oval. Beck falls into this job after a temporary position at a school in Washington D.C. finishes. She is working several part time jobs when she comes across a Craigslist add for a stenographer. It isn't until she interviews for the job that she discovers it is working at the White House. From 2012 to 2017, she is part of the team that records every speech, every interview, and every press briefing that President Obama conducts. She travels with the White House staff all over the world for meetings with international leaders and to small towns in the United States for meetings with everyday Americans. She details what it is like to fly on Airforce One and travel in protected motorcades and stay in hotels guarded by Secret Service agents. She also shares a great deal about her personal life and how she spent those years meeting new friends and how the job affected her relationships.
Unfortunately, Dorey-Stein isn't particularly likeable. In fact, there were several times she was downright unlikeable. It is obvious she tries, but like the one-dimensional female character in a 2-star YA novel, she fails. She describes herself as unsophisticated out of place in a way that sounds like whining like insincere insecurity. Granted, some of the staff sound pretty awful with one even criticizing her orange blazer: "Bright colors are for senior staffers." It makes me wonder, do they also say "On Wednesdays we wear pink."? Even still, rather than coming off as an underdog, she just sounds pathetic.
Dorey-Stein also recounts how this time is filled with her participation in a despicable affair. For part of it she has a boyfriend, but for all of it the man in question has a girlfriend or is engaged. It is annoying to read about how flat-out stupid she is with this guy, a senior staffer. I know we all do dumb things when we are in love, but nothing about this guy is redeeming or romantic, no matter how hard she tries to write it that way. He constantly leaves her miserable and she just keeps going back for more. It made me want to scream at her "Get. It. Together, girl!" Through it all she is surrounded but so many inspiring people; smart, strong women and men who are busy making a difference and all she can see is a pathetic high school romance with a jerk who is probably a sociopath. That is pretty hard to like.
She bemoans her lot in life after one particularly rough night of overdrinking and fighting with this man and finds herself envying my friends with their full nights of sleep, their unfractured hearts, their focus on what actually matters. Then grow up, figure it out, and be better! On numerous occasions she describes how one drink after work leads to several more which always lead to more bad decisions. It is embarrassing. She tells these stories like she thinks she is Carrie from Sex in the City, but she really isn't. And she really shouldn't.
An aspiring writer during this time, she shares her writing with several people who all tell her how great a writer she is, but of course she doesn't believe it- no matter how many times over and over she reports people telling her she's great. It almost sounds like a humblebrag the way she goes on and on about it. A couple of different times she mentions that people ask her when she's going to quit her job and be a writer. She even quotes one friend calling it a "shit job" and suggesting she quit and start writing. First of all, it sounds like a pretty amazing job to me. I'm sure every day isn't a day at Disneyland, but traveling the world? Interacting on a regular basis with President Obama? Meeting inspiring people at every turn? That sounds like a dream job. And secondly, why does she have to quit to be a writer? There are plenty of writers with day jobs and it sounds like she has plenty of downtime to devote to her writing, if only she could stop going out to bars late into the night, getting wasted like a college sophomore every time she has a free moment, and squandering her time and energy on a useless man who doesn't even care about her.
In the end, this book was a self-indulgent exercise in sensationalism with the sole purpose of becoming a published author. We want to learn about life working in the White House, not about her ridiculous social life. The content of her occupation is fascinating, but Beck? Not so much.
*This Advanced Reader Copy was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for and honest review.*
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