I was fairly certain that Gavin Newsom’s Young Man in a Hurry – A Memoir of Discovery would be a terrific read for two reasons. First, Newsom is a compelling political figure, exceptionally smart, accomplished, and a good story teller. Second, I know well his ghost writer, Mark Arax.

Mark was my publisher and editor (not my ghost writer) for my memoir From the West to the East – A Memoir of a Liberal American Rabbi (publ. 2024). I know Mark’s talent as a critic and editor. I assumed he would do the same with Newsom as he did with me – push me as far as I was willing to go in revealing myself. In Newsom’s “Acknowledgements,” he thanked Mark and noted that when he invited Mark to be his ghost writer, Mark accepted but insisted only that “the memoir would go where it needed to go, no matter how personal and wrenching, and I [i.e. Newsom] agreed.”

Though there is much in this book that covers Newsom’s political values and the policy issues about which he cares deeply, this memoir does not focus on policy. It is a personal story about Newsom’s family going back several generations, his debilitating dyslexia that made being a student painful and difficult (no one diagnosed his disability), how he learned through failure to compensate using other talents and strengths, and his experience growing up as a child of divorce.

Gavin’s father Bill Newsom ran twice and lost both times for elected office, for San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors and the California State legislature. His dad ended up “broken and broke,” and soon left the family when Gavin and his younger sister Hilary were small children. Neither of them  knew why their parents’ marriage ended until long after their deaths.

Gavin’s father’s closest life-long friend from high school was Gordon Getty, the son of the oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. Bill served as Gordon’s attorney and the manager of his considerable fortune. Gavin and Hilary lived most of the time with their mother Tessa who worked three jobs to eke out a living. The children spent their summers with their father and consequently lived the luxury life that surrounded the Getty family. Gavin, however, was never “Prince Gavin,” as one political opponent characterized him. He worked hard as a kid, starting with a paper route for spending money, and he worked his way into young adulthood as a small business owner until he entered politics.

Gavin’s father’s political connections, however, gave him a leg up. Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown appointed Gavin to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors at the age of 24, and tutored the young Gavin in politics and the use of power. The “young man in a hurry” (as he was described in the press) took it from there to become the youngest San Francisco Mayor in over a century at the age of 37, then as California’s Lieutenant Governor, and then Governor of the largest state in the nation. Gavin would likely acknowledge that he was born on second or third base despite the hardships of being raised by a single mother, but despite those hardships he made the most of his talents.

Tall, charismatic, handsome, with his characteristically slicked-back gelled-hair, very smart, exceptionally verbal, but never quite certain who he was in his younger years, Gavin spent his life striving to overcome his dyslexia and find himself. He married twice, the second time in 2008 to Jennifer Steibel, a documentary film-maker and actress. They are the parents of four children.

Gavin has maximized his ability to focus and succeed at everything he has set his mind to do. He says still that he struggles to read, but he has learned to use a teleprompter – though he prefers speaking extemporaneously. As he promised Mark Arax, in this book Gavin openly talked about his strengths and weaknesses, and he describes many of the challenges he faced as a child and throughout his political career, a refreshing quality in a political leader.

Gavin was never afraid to take risks based upon principle. For example, soon after becoming San Francisco’s Mayor, he directed the city clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because he believed it was the right thing to do. Though not the first time this was done in the United States, it was the first time a major U.S. city issued more than 4,000 marriage licenses in one month to same-sex couples in what came to be known as the “Winter of Love.” That policy, observers believed, would end Gavin’s political career.

He also initiated what he called the “Care Not Cash” program for the homeless and the “Healthy San Francisco” universal healthcare initiative. He notes other issues that he cares most about such as the challenges of being a single mother, the scourge of poverty, the existential challenge of climate change, and the importance of making government work on behalf of the most vulnerable and needy. However, this is not a policy book. It is a personal memoir.

Gavin doesn’t say it outright yet, but political observers agree that Gavin Newsom is certainly running for president in 2028. Can he win the Democratic Party nomination? It’s way too early to predict as the Democratic bench is broad and talented.

Gavin has worked hard over the last few years to become known beyond California. He has been willing to go anywhere and talk to anyone including Sean Hannity on his “Fox-News” broadcast, in his persistent trolling of Trump, his leadership in passing Proposition 50 to redistrict California as a counter balance against Trump’s demand that Texas redistrict this past year, and on his national speaking tour since this memoir was published. Gavin wants to be on the Joe Rogan Podcast, but Rogan hasn’t initiated an invitation. Newsom calls him a “chicken.”

The book is well-written and an insightful look into the life and character of a man who might well one day be the President of the United States. I recommend it highly.