Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future

I read this on the heels of reading Chasten Buttigieg’s 2020 memoir, “I have something to tell you.” As I expected, these are two very different, but also very complementary, books. What most people who read “Mayor Pete’s” book from 2019 don’t understand is that, combined with his husband’s memoir, the two books are nothing less than an epic gay romance. Two very different young men, both from the Midwest, each of them troubled by something deeply personal but entirely different from the way it troubles the other. Both men are virtual tropes of a whole genre of popular fiction.Pete Buttigieg, who could easily be my son, is a very good writer. The book is full of richly-textured content and yet not burdensomely long. It is remarkably well crafted, and by that I mean structured so as to deliver the maximum effect in exactly the way the author wishes. Even the boring parts—like “how to manage a mid-sized Indiana city”—are actually engaging; and there is tremendous pleasure in reading the words of a man who is literate and thoughtful and, at times, poetic.This is, however, and totally opposite to his husband’s more recent memoir, a very calculated, political book. This is not a criticism, but simply an observation. It is really well done, and I spent any number of moments staring off into space trying to imagine the editorial machinations that tweaked and polished and nudged every single chapter and subsection into exactly the right place for the right time.“The Shortest Way Home,” I suspect, effectively describes and truly resembles the life it portrays. Pete Buttigieg is so much smarter in the largest sense of the word than I could ever be. His interests in civics and politics, even as a boy, took him far outside any set of interests I ever had. His scholarly abilities, his passion for knowledge (even esoteric and difficult knowledge—the description of his Oxford years nearly made me faint from my own sense of inadequacy) truly mark him as an exceptional person. There is no bragging, but also no false modesty.Buttigieg’s astonishing feat of internal logic that turned him toward a completely voluntary side-career in the military (while, mind you, he was also the mayor of a city and still in his twenties), was so alien to me I had to stop and think through his reasoning. I ultimately disagree with his reasoning, but I understand it, and was rather moved by the moral purity of it. He is far braver than I ever have been, and I suspect that his military impulse was part of a larger internal self-preparation for the public arena (even if it was subconscious).Other than two random uses of his name, Chasten Glezman and his role in Buttigieg’s life has no place in this book until it is three-quarters done. The idea of a famously gay man waiting until this late in a memoir to actually deal with the topic of his sexuality bespeaks a political savvy that is both impressive and a little chilling. Pete got a great deal of his name recognition for being the gay mayor of a midwestern city; but he knows (as I do) that the wave of his popularity rode on the embrace of lots and lots of straight readers. I get it; but I am like Chasten, and was out by the age of twenty, and met my husband as an undergraduate at Yale forty-five years ago. I know I’m not like Pete, but can’t help worrying that he’s one of those gay men who insists that being gay is “only one small part of who I am.” Could be. I could be wrong.Regardless, I admire Pete Buttigieg and his book immensely. I was honestly in tears at the end, as he speaks of his love for South Bend Indiana and the life he has built there. He had not yet completed his unsuccessful run to be president when this book was published; but he knew it was a longshot anyway. This book is just as interesting and relevant now as it was then. This is a man who has a long view. He also has a great heart and a soul as honest and true as any politician I’ve ever heard of, including the famous ancestor after whom I’m named.I hope Pete and Chasten make it to the White House someday. I really think they could change the world and make our country better. They surely couldn’t do worse.

Everyone that I talk to about this candidate asks the same question: is America ready? But that’s not the right question. The right question is, “What can each of us do between now and November 2020 to open people’s minds so that America is ready?”First, the book. I wish I could say to read this book to see why America needs Mayor Pete to be President Pete, but you don’t need to – just listen to him talk for five minutes in any of his recent speeches or town halls. I wish also that I could say to read this book for a complete understanding, but that’s not really true either. The book left me wanting to know more. This book will give you a deeper understanding for sure, but on every topic, from his service in Afghanistan, to his Rhodes Scholar studies, to his time as mayor, I felt like I was only hearing the first chapter of a great story. At age 37, this candidate has done and experienced so many things in his life, that I get the sense he could fill ten books, and they would all be interesting.He speaks in a way that can bring people from different backgrounds and political mindsets together. He gives real, non-“politiciany” answers to hard questions. He is humble, likeable, and really really smart. He also lives many of the challenges we are all facing. He doesn’t just have opinions and positions: he has student debt, he will be around to see the full effects of climate change, and he has overcome adversity. If not for that one question about whether America is ready for a gay president, I think Pete would be the front runner in this race by a mile already. But I remember a similar question being asked early on about a certain, other energizing new candidate who then went on to became a historic “first” in 2008.Who can win in 2020 America is not some immutable law. We are America. We decide who can win. If we brush this candidate aside with a, “yeah, he’s great, but he can’t win,” then he won’t. But if we get involved and show up at events, knock on doors, and talk to our friends and family, then he can. He won reelection in South Bend, Indiana with 80% of the vote after coming out, based on the sheer power of his ideas and problem-solving, and with the right support from all of us, he can win the presidency and much more: not just another election where the pendulum swings left, only to return hard-right two to four years later, but in his words “an era.”Read the book. It’s well written, it’s filled with wisdom, and you will get a deeper understanding of this candidate. But don’t stop there when there is so much more to be done. As Pete learned in Afghanistan:“A river is made drop by drop.” - Afghan Proverb

I just finished what I will call the Buttdigieg trilogy - This book, Trust (by Pete), and Chasten's book, too. This book tells of Pete's rise to awareness of the problems in South Bend (never recovered from the Studebaker closing). He outlines a methodical approach to that and other problems he faced. In South Bend that included about 1,000 houses that were too run-down for low income housing. The book is really well written, with a strong sense of who Pete really is. I was aware he was a scholar (Harvard and Oxford), but I didn't know he knew so many languages, including Arabic. As a musician, I was impressed that he learned and performed Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, a famous piece that is in no way easy to play. By the end of the book (approaching the 2020 campaign) you realize that this is a man who thinks clearly, plans a course, but who has the wisdom to listen to other people's advice. Trust deals with observations of the regime just ended.One thing refreshing is the gentle way both Pete and Chasten approach the subject of their marriage. It is a true love story, nicely defined, but not filled with unimportant "details." Chasten's book also makes clear his (at one time) discomfort around the bigwigs in the political parties. Education is his background, and he feels a little out of his depth. But then he finds that young people, those who face the questions of identity that both Chasten and Pete went through, are heartened and learn from him. He relates well and humbly to their problems. I recommend Shortest Way Home, and the other two. They are all three well written.

Fascinating, beautifully written book.Thoroughly enjoyed and will definitely recommend to anyone who has not read it.I believe that in particular his chapter on the use of data to drive management decisions would have been of great use to some people I’ve worked with in the past.

If you thought you liked Mayor Pete before this read, you will love him after. Such a talented, thoughtful, kind person who is what the US sorely needs now.

Rarely have i read a non-fiction book at one go and though I have sometimes lost a whole night's sleep over a book, it was always to a thriller/crime/detective novel - i am surprised at myself to get so engrossed in a political autobiography of someone who isn't yet famous in his own country, let alone mine.I got directed to this book through one of Mayor Pete's appearances in an American talk show where the host displayed the book. The mayor seemed to talk sense and though from a different country, with very different issues than mine, he seemed to be able to generate appreciation in me for things he said (and the way he said it) and somehow strike a chord in someone so far removed from issues he talked about (or maybe we are not really that removed, given the globalisation of thought processes and politics that transcends boundaries and finds commonality in many national discourses today).After seeing some of his TV appearances, streamed online, i decided to give the book a chance. And despite difficulty of finding it here for almost a month (the first Amazon seller, after two weeks of booking, cancelled the order as there was no book in his stock) it finally landed in my home and reading through it i felt it was a wise decision to persist in trying to buy a copy.The autobiography revolves around the author's role as Mayor of his hometown: it's history and characteristics, the challenges he faces as a mayor and how he, and his city administration, are responding to such challenges in innovative ways. This book is the story of an incredible young man who has achieved a lot, yet has remained humble while telling his story. The story's central tenet is about the love of a man for his roots and how he went out to gather knowledge first and then returned to serve his hometown, community and country. It also contains the simple and romantic story of Mayor Pete and his husband Chasten.And all of it is beautifully written.If you are someone who likes reading books, and gets inspiration from the written word, this particular book is a must read, even if you are not that interested in American (or any) politics.So do get hold of a copy of this book. Apart from reading a good story told well, you will also get to know the next US President (if not, the next US something - what I don't know but it is for sure he is destined to greatness, or rather Mayor Pete is great already and we will get to see him shaping something important in US or international politics).

I spent a long time over this. I started at the beginning, then dipped into different chapters out of order, then went back and read some chapters I’d read before. Then I started from the beginning again, and read all the way through. I also listened to Pete narrating his own story with the Audible version. I’m full of admiration for the things Pete’s achieved in his relatively short life time, and admit to having a huge (political) crush on him. I can see him going all the way to the top. I only wish we had someone of such high calibre here in the Australian political scene

Similar to its author who suddenly broke on the national and international political scene like a fresh perspective...this book is the same. I actually want ti visit South Bend now.