I was nervous when Jacobin editors asked me to review Ilhan Omar’s new book. Omar, a Somalia-born refugee, in 2018 became (with Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib) one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

The problem was, I’m a fan. I admire Omar’s courage, and I’m glad someone as tough and visionary as she is fights for our side, the side of the working class. And I can’t help but notice that, like her fellow “Squad” member, Queens congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Omar is gifted with such good looks that it’s nearly impossible for her enemies to deploy the misogynist’s favorite nonviolent weapon: the unflattering photo. Omar gives me hope for the future. If we needed any further reasons for fandom, she’s also raised a great kid: her daughter, Isra Hirsi, is one of the main organizers of the US Youth Climate Strike (Jacobin interviewed her here).

But since memoirs by politicians are usually so terrible — inspirational and dishonest treacle — I feared I’d hate her book. Then I’d have to write a “love the author, hate the book” review or write some essay about her that more or less dodged the matter of the book’s quality. But this story has a happy ending: This Is What America Looks Like is a pretty good book. It is indeed a political memoir, as feared, but Omar and her coauthor, Rebecca Paley, have a straightforward, highly readable storytelling style, and the congresswoman has a compelling story.