Janet Reno: Doing the Right Thing

Uses the author's personal experience in covering Reno for over 12 years as a correspondent for The Miami Herald plus in-depth interviews with close friends and family to explore her early years at Harvard Law School as well as her tenure as a prosecutor in Miami. Reno's battles with the White House and Capitol Hill as well as her ultimate impact on the Washington establishment are discussed. The Waco crisis and issues such as abortion, gun control and terrorism are also included.

A lively, balanced portrait of the nation's first woman attorney general, by a Miami Herald reporter. As Anderson sees her, Reno is a ``righteous, buck-stops-here law-woman'' whose plain-spoken candor and high principles make her an unlikely player in Washington. Born to a beer-guzzling, alligator-wrestling mother in South Florida, Reno and her three siblings grew up ``wild, constantly adventurous,'' enthralled with nature, books, and Democratic politics. Her ambitious spirit brought her to Harvard Law School in 1960, where she endured the sexism of her professors to graduate well respected but, as she herself admits, ``certainly not near the top'' of her class. After a brief stint in private practice, Reno was tapped as Florida's first female state attorney, a post she held for 15 years, despite sometimes tempestuous relations with the black community. Anderson chronicles Reno's achievements as prosecutor as well as her failures. He provides a behind-the-scenes account of her torturous nomination and confirmation as attorney general, considers her surprising apotheosis as the nation's favorite ``awkward old maid,'' and dissects her uneasy relationship with President Clinton. Lest the reader think that Reno's bio is premature, he reminds us of the extraordinary events of her short tenure as attorney general, including Waco, the Lani Guinier nomination, and the World Trade Center bombing. Anderson praises Reno for her policy of disclosure and her role in the debate on crime while taking her to task for allowing her department to remain in a state of bureaucratic confusion. Anderson's style is crisp and accessible, and his view of Reno is admiring but fair. More might have been written on the nuances of her jurisprudence (such as her ``personal opposition'' to the death penalty, which she secured 103 times as Florida's top prosecutor), but this is far from a puff piece. A solid introduction to an American original, written with journalistic verve. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

YA-From her childhood in southern Florida through her tumultuous first year as U.S.Attorney General, Janet Reno's personal and professional lives are objectively examined. Students seeking a biography of a strong female, a greater understanding of the role of this important cabinet post, an overview of political realities at the state and national level, background information on the Liberty City riots in May 1980, the Waco tragedy in April 1993, or any of the other major Justice Department involvements of the last year will be well served by this text.
Barbara Hawkins, Oakton High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Neither a deep character study nor a full analysis of Reno's career, this mainly admiring portrait of our plainspoken first female attorney general should satisfy those looking for a broad overview of her life and work. Anderson, Washington correspondent for the Miami Herald , traces Reno's background as the daughter of two Miami journalists, her "straight arrow" years as one of a few women at Harvard Law School and her introduction to law and politics when she returned to Florida. He describes Reno's triumphs and traumas as Dade County prosecutor, her appointment by President Clinton in the wake of two failed nominations and her performance as head of the Justice Department, including the Branch Davidian disaster in Waco, Tex., her criticism of TV violence and her limited role in formulating Clinton's crime bill. Though he avoids judgments for much of the book, Anderson adds mild criticism to praise in his epilogue. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Written by the Washington correspondent for the Miami Herald, this biography is packed full of Washington scandal and gaffes of the litigious Justice Department. Reno comes across as larger than her 6'2" real-life self. Anderson recounts events from Reno's life in public service, in which she has tried unmitigatingly to do the right thing. The incidents range from the Florida riots in the 1980s stemming from the acquittal of police officers in the murder of a black motorcycle rider-when Reno was Dade County state attorney-to the 1994 travel office fiasco in Washington that resulted in the firing of seven employees and, ultimately, the suicide of White House counsel Vince Foster. Anderson also covers Reno's angle on the Waco, Texas siege; Clinton's dropping of Lani Guinier as head of the Civil Rights Division; and Reno's involvement in recent gun control legislation. Anderson tries to be evenhanded in describing both sides of controversial issues, but nonetheless his Reno is of legendary status. Buy plenty of copies for summer reading.
Paula N. Arnold, Vermont Coll. Lib., Norwich Univ., Montpelier
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Anderson, a Reno-watcher for the Miami Herald for a dozen years, is an unabashed admirer and does a creditable job of relating Reno's lively and unusual family history, from her immigrant paternal grandfather's casting aside of their classic Danish surname, Rasmussen, for Reno, an all-American moniker picked fresh off a map of the U.S., to Reno's wonderfully independent, eccentric, generous, and resourceful mother, who built the sturdy South Florida house Reno still calls home. Anderson tracks young Reno--tall, confident, and brilliant--through her years at Cornell as a chemistry major and at Harvard Law School where sexism was the norm. He also sums up her demanding, controversy-strewn years as Florida's state attorney, all the while praising her as a woman of little vanity and tremendous integrity, a "lifetime supporter of legal aid for the poor," a devoted and effective advocate for children, and an enthusiastic workaholic. Reno's compassionate but no-nonsense personality comes through loud and clear in this rapid sketch and welcome tribute, but we'll hope that there will be many more "firsts" for this outstanding woman and a more in-depth biography to chronicle them. Donna Seaman