My Chicago

A twenty-six-year-old widow with no experience in practical politics Jane Byrne was puzzled when Chicagos autocratic Mayor Richard Daley Sr. brusquely asked her to stop by his office in early 1964. In the surprising scene that ensued she gained unusual insight into one of the most powerful men in America and found herself suddenly launched on a new career one that led in 1979 to her own dramatic election as Chicagos only woman mayor. My Chicago is a warm and frank memoir filled with deftly drawn portraits of the famous and the obscure the story of a remarkable womans discovery of the realities of power. It is also the rich chronicle of her abiding love affair with the vigorous and complex city where her immigrant Irish ancestors had dared to start new lives before the Civil War. Just as she charts the struggles of her forebears in parallel with the growth of Chicago backlighting their personal tragedies with the citys own disasters of fire and racial conflict Byrne also intertwines her personal aspirations for political justice and fairness with the developing political consciousness of the citys many different communities. Her career she makes clear is part and parcel of the history of Chicago and of her familys place in that history. In her vivid telling the challenges of the Chicago mayoralty take on meaning for all cities and towns for all communities. Wryly she shows how private ambition and ingrown corruption can breed strange political maneuvers; but she also demonstrates that hard work direct talk and earned trust can bring about change. A natural storyteller Byrne shares unforgettable glimpses of her political allies and her rivals of President Carter and President Reagan of cowed Mafiosi and stubborn bureaucrats. Above all she convincingly brings to life the Byzantine machinations of Mayor Richard Daley Sr. and his smoothly functioning seemingly omnipotent political machine. How Byrne defeats that monolith after Daleys death is the heart of the drama of My Chicago. How she accepts and analyzes her own defeat later makes possible her sobering but guardedly optimistic view of the future for political cooperation in America. A mayor who never forgot that she was elected by the people living in neighborhoods like those of her immigrant ancestors people who believed in the American dream Jane Byrne has written a revealing autobiography and a hymn to the beautiful brawling city she loves so well.