Kamala’s Way: In-depth biography struggles to find the real Harris

Dan Morain’s biography of the US vice-president is well-observed and diligent, but frustratingly lacking in inside detail

Kamala Harris is sworn in as US vice-president: a new biography of her is dogged but humourless. Picture: Getty

BIOGRAPHY

Kamala’s Way: An American Life

By Dan Morain

Simon & Schuster, €20.25

Kamala Harris hates people calling her “the female Obama”. “Don’t define me based on something a man did,” the future US vice-president reprimanded a journalist in 2019. “I have my own legacy.”

Dan Morain’s solid, sympathetic but sadly unrevealing biography agrees that the comparison only goes so far. True, Obama and Harris are both charismatic, liberal Democrats who have made history as ...