By the end of this book, I definitely believed that Cassidy Hutchinson took a huge leap in living by values I seriously admire. She took a chance that was extraordinarily dangerous to her in telling the truth about her time in the Trump White House. Having seen that very few Trump fans can step back and see how dangerous and just plain mean he is, that’s impressive. With her background and deep Republican party views, it’s even more impressive. Unlike some, I liked hearing about her childhood and her rather bizarre father. But, she’s 23 to 27 in this memoir and she’s annoying sometimes. She thinks a lot of herself and heck, people moved her up and validated the heck out of her at a very young age. She seems rather pleasant but narcissistic. She fails to see the irony in her workaholism ending a relationship while bitterly upset with her father’s absence from the family due to work. She claims to have tried to help former friends and colleagues when her boss was out to get them. She even tries to suggest she did not want to intentionally harm Mark Meadows who ultimately treated her like garbage. But she also got lost in her power in a way that hurt people and makes me on the fence about her. Again, her father?
Meanwhile (and I still drink) I think her next book might need to be, “My name is Cassidy and I’m an alcoholic.” I know my 20s were a period of heavyish drinking but you could play bingo while reading “Enough” and fill a ton of cards if the boxes say, “author takes a drink.”
That said, I think the book was fairly frank, fairly well written, fairly well narrated and is a VERY fascinating story of an insider’s look at the White House. I personally loved her connecting with Alexander Butterfield, who had everything to do with bringing down Nixon. These days, Congress wasn’t honest enough to bring down Trump. Where other Republicans should have felt shame and done right by the United States and democracy, they worry over their own power. (Ultimately, I’d say Michael Cohen turned out to be the most effective inside witness to Trump’s peccadilloes: We shall see.) But Cassidy Hutchinson provided information that might help if these trials get moving that relate to January 6th and classified information.
I hope that Cassidy learns to be more humble, while continuing to put her skills and intelligence to work effectively and with compassion. I hope she finds something other than alcohol to calm her down or help her sleep, because she mentions sleep issues and seems not to know that alcohol will not let her sleep. I also hope she stays courageous and focused on doing the right thing. That includes showing true compassion for those who have not been served well by the richest country in the world. I would hope she eventually pays attention to poverty, educational inequity, food scarcity/costs, substandard housing/no housing/unaffordable housing/, mental health, and access to healthcare in general. Perhaps someday, she’ll move forward to demonstrate the true compassion she admires here and there in “Enough.” Best of luck to her as she grows up. I’d read a sequel every ten years or so.
They Called me Bookworm 