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"'A Different Kind of Power' is ... aimed at a particular kind of young, liberal, educated American idiot eager to drink the Kool-Aid that Ardern goes around dispensing in her various meaningless roles in the US as an ambassador of kindness. Be vulnerable, she advises throughout 'A Different Kind of Power.' Be sensitive. Above all, be kind. I remember the first time I heard her articulate this sort of thing when she tried it on at a rather dismal Labour Party event in the Grey Lynn RSA in about 2011. Labour were in opposition, lost and afraid; Ardern was a list MP, optimistic and possibly insane. 'I’ve been thinking about a politics based on love,' she said, and even the party faithful looked at her like she was mad. She was an artist ahead of her time. ...
"It’s an entertaining story. Weird little Mormon kid becomes world figure. ... Ardern never does things by halves, or even by wholes; a theme of 'A Different Kind of Power' is that she goes the extra distance, rabbits on, bangs the empathy drum through the streets of her book, all hear-ye hear-ye, a town crier literally crying her head off at the sorrows of the world but determined to face its evils with a sopping handkerchief and a set of wet slogans. It’s a very Jacinda Ardern book, as in true to her idea of herself."
~ Steve Braunas from his 'Jacinda, the first review'
UPDATE: A second review ...
"[T]he book wasn’t written with the New Zealand market in mind but for all those progressives in the Northern Hemisphere who exulted in Ardern’s considerable wins, such as her handling of the Christchurch Mosque shootings, the Whakaari/White Island disaster, her successful Covid-19 shut down of the country in 2020, and the political qualities of kindness she espouses."Ardern has always been the queen of identity politics. She turns her beliefs into full-blown convictions that you’re either onside with, or absolutely not. It’s revealing that issues outside of that, for example the broken promise to build 100,000 KiwiBuild properties, receive scant attention in her book. ... Ardern, a priestess of presenting just-enough information at the right time, seems to be sharing the PG-version of events. ...
"[P]olitics is a zero-sum game. You enjoy some success until, eventually, you lose. Covid-19 presented leaders around the world with a once-in-a-lifetime challenge–and in the first year it arrived on Aotearoa’s shores, Ardern shone. .... By and large the country’s population of just over five million rallied.... By the end of that year Labour had won more than 50 per cent of the vote in the October election, and the country was enjoying a summer of festivals and barbecues.
"Fast forward to just over a year later to February 2022 when Ardern’s zero-sum game reached its nadir. Because if 2020 was where she excelled, 2021 was the year where the mistakes piled up, layer upon layer upon layer.
"First the then-Government was too slow to order vaccines. Then it gave the Rapid Antigen Testing contract not to a provider with a track record but an outfit who didn’t even have one. By December 2021, Auckland had been in a different lockdown from the rest of the country for three months, and many, many Aucklanders were fed up. Not that Ardern mentions anything about this. ...
"But she does talk about her nadir – the Parliamentary Protests. ... She ... say[s] the occupation 'was about trust…. or more accurately mistrust.' That mistrust rose, biliously, from a fed-up nation. Less than a year later Ardern announced she was stepping down as Prime Minister and leaving politics. ...
It’s too early yet to assess Ardern’s political leadership skills except to note it was an administration of striking highs and lows. Her own book doesn’t attempt to make an assessment. It’s less a political memoir than another sprinkling of Jacinda fairy stardust to her adoring Greek Chorus of devotees. ... Ardern is their posterchild after all. ... "[E]xpect the virtue signalling to continue unabated."~ Janet Wilson from her review 'Jacinda, by Janet Wilson'
English (US) ·