My American Journey
 Colin Powell with Joseph E. Persico
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 1995 Random House, NY USA
  ISBN: 0679432965


This Four Star General, Presidential Advisor & Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff tells his ordinary & inspiring story. From his warm & loving immigrant family, through his rite-of-passage military decades to his detours in the mazes of the Pentagon, this hero's memoir is a beacon.

Colin Powell's Chapter One lurches us immediately into an apparently placid, well-planned excursion to the land of his parents birth, Jamaica, on a helicopter ride with his beloved wife that becomes a day trip to hell.

Throughout this careful, caring & often humorous book, Colin Powell unfolds the charms, adventures & intricacies of his most ordinary life. From his childhood in Harlem, New York in the late 1930s, describing his loving extended family in neighborhoods now long gone, both ethnically & physically, to his dithering teens when he eventually discovers the career that will give him purpose & take him into the company of presidents, prime ministers & generals.

Military life is quietly exposed: the postings, the egos, the foibles, the homes, the pay & the social connections. This hero's early years of applying himself to learn all that he could about his chosen profession, his tours in war zones, his detours into the corridors of the Pentagon all are discussed as if we were sitting across from each other on a long Sunday afternoon, with the kids out in the garden, telling the stories of one man's history.

As chapter follows chapter this quiet man becomes involved in some of the noisiest headlines of the past 30 years. I could not help feeling like I was keeping company with the eye of a hurricane. While all about him are losing their heads, charging into this battle & that trouble, Colin Powell is quietly, carefully stepping across minefields & reaching the other side, bathed in smiles & medals.

I now know for sure why so many people would gladly have this American in the Oval Office. How this citizen would bring renewal & refreshment to our honor-tattered presidency. I can see how the men under his command would follow him to hell & back, counting themselves lucky.

Colin Powell takes us on some memorable trips with presidents, generals, heads of state & ordinary soldiers & his insights are pure gold. Makes me proud to be a citizen of the same country as this gentleman.
(11/07/99)

Rebecca