Beck, for Rebecca, Dorey-Stein, a Wesleyan grad in her mid-20s, unemployed and living in D.C., is going nowhere fast. In 2012 she answers a Craigslist ad for a stenographer by sending her resume. She gets a call for an interview and blows it off (what the hell is a stenographer, anyway?), and then a follow-up call telling her, oh, by the way, you might want to reschedule an interview as the position is in the White House. For the next four years she is around Barack Obama almost
constantly, and when she’s not with POTUS she’s partying and intermittently trying to fix her wacky love life. This is a Washington memoir revealing its author’s uncharacteristic candor, charm, intelligence, and heart, as well as an occasionally up-close view of a president exhibiting those same qualities. —Richard
In 2012, Beck Dorey-Stein is working five part-time jobs and just scraping by when a posting on Craigslist lands her, improbably, in the Oval Office as one of Barack Obama’s stenographers. The ultimate D.C. outsider, she joins the elite team who accompany the president wherever he goes, recorder and mic in hand. On whirlwind trips across time zones, Beck forges friendships with a dynamic group of fellow travelers—young men and women who, like her, leave their real lives behind to hop aboard Air Force One in service of the president.
As she learns to navigate White House protocols and more than once runs afoul of the hierarchy, Beck becomes romantically entangled with a consummate D.C. insider, and suddenly the political becomes all too personal.
Against the backdrop of glamour, drama, and intrigue, this is the story of a young woman making unlikely friendships, getting her heartbroken, learning what truly matters, and, in the process, discovering her voice.
“Hilarious . . . Dorey-Stein writes with honesty and panache.” —Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Beck Dorey-Stein is a native of Narberth, Pennsylvania, and a graduate of Wesleyan University. Prior to her five years in the White House, she taught high school English in Hightstown, New Jersey; Washington, D.C.; and Seoul, South Korea. This is her first book.
