Amy Klobuchar has been asked a few times if the title of her new book — "The Joy of Politics" — is sarcastic.
The 362-page memoir, released by St. Martin's Press on Tuesday, details a turbulent period in the life of Minnesota's senior senator: her ultimately unsuccessful bid for president, her father's death from Alzheimer's, her husband's hospitalization with COVID-19 and her own breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. She also had a front-row seat to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and the surreal realities of governing during a global pandemic.
"While the story is my story, it also includes the stories of a lot of other people who went through so much over the last few years and had setbacks," Klobuchar said in an interview. "Each thing is a setback, but there's joy in the comeback."
In her third book since being elected to the U.S. Senate, Klobuchar takes the reader through the last several years from her perspective, often trying to find joy in moments that others might consider joyless.
Klobuchar, a Biden backer, isn't running for president again in 2024 — so why publish a breezy, personal memoir now? Coming out of the pandemic, she said it's helpful to reflect on the parts that "really sucked" and take lessons away from the experience. Here are four key moments from her new book:
Breast cancer diagnosis
Klobuchar publicly revealed her breast cancer diagnosis in September 2021. By then she'd already had surgery and a round of radiation treatment. Her book goes deeper into what she was going through during that time, which coincided with her father's decline and eventual death.
Klobuchar describes the moment when a constituent spotted her on the pre-op bed at Mayo Clinic, dressed in a hospital gown covering a pen-drawn target on her breast. She used the opportunity to remind an immobile Klobuchar of the ongoing conflict in Burma. Klobuchar said she would look into it but wasn't allowed to have her cellphone.