Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

How did one family produce three such extraordinary sons? Ezekiel is a doctor, university professor, and special advisor on health policy for President Obama. Rahm is mayor of Chicago and a former White House chief of staff. Ari is a powerhouse Hollywood agent. Firstborn Ezekiel traces the genesis of the divergent achievements of the brothers Emanuel in this vivid, engaging, and thoughtfully analytical family portrait that illuminates the forceful personalities and kinetic energy of the Emanuels as well as 1960s Chicago. Their Israeli father, Ben, was consumed by his work as a community-minded doctor. Their mother, Marsha, a fearless activist, took her young sons to civil rights protests. The brothers fought constantly but always defended each other during street fights with anti-Semitic and racist bullies. Ezekiel's loving, bemused, and incisive chronicle of Emanuel family dynamics and each brother's struggles his as an ambitious nerd; fiercely intelligent Rahm's with sensitivity about his height; and natural-born entrepreneur Ari's with learning disabilities fizzes with surprising disclosures, alarming and hilarious incidents, and intriguing perspectives on the American dream, the nature-versus-nurture puzzle, and diverse definitions of success.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The eldest Emanuel brother's memoir provides background on this extraordinary family. The successes of Hollywood agent Ari, Chicago mayor Rahm, and bioethicist Ezekiel stem from the lessons learned from their parents' civil rights activism, as well as the boys' rough-and-tumble sibling rivalry growing up in Chicago. The author provides ample details of how the boys were shaped through education and experience but leaves plenty of room concerning their current careers and philosophies for future individual biographies. Though the author's own reading lends authenticity, some may find his voice irritating. Strong language is present in recollections of civil rights marches, school and playground racism, and heated dinner-table discussions. VERDICT This audio is recommended for adult collections. [The Random hc was a New York Times best seller.-Ed.]-Cliff Glaviano, formerly with Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The brother of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel relates the history of his family's classic immigrants-make-good American story. Ezekiel Emanuel's memoir is ostensibly the story of how he and his brothers, Rahm and Ari, developed their unique personalities and talents over the years. The author became a respected research scientist specializing in bioethics, his brother Ari, a successful talent agent, and his brother Rahm worked for the Clinton campaign in 1992 and eventually became Barack Obama's chief of staff. Yet despite the brothers' ambitions in their respective fields, they aren't the ones whose lives make for the most interesting focal point in the book: It's the parents who actually lived the memoir-worthy lives. The father, Ben, was a direct participant in the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, interrupting his medical studies to act as an amateur secret agent and then joining the Israeli artillery in the fight against the Egyptians. After the war, he finished medical school in Switzerland before coming to America to set up his practice. Their mother was a staunch left-wing activist in the 1960s; she brought her sons to some of the most heated political protests in Chicago. Comparatively, the early life that Ezekiel and his brothers led in the Chicago suburbs was fairly comfortable and middle-class, with all three brothers going to expensive, exclusive colleges on their father's dime and studiously sticking to the straight-and-narrow path to professional success. In fact, the most exciting thing that happened to the author came while studying in England: He was jailed in Oxford for supposedly resisting arrest while breaking bike safety laws. Well-written and heartfelt but short on dramatic moments and memorable anecdotes.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.