Review: I Have Something to Tell You



I Have Something to Tell You
by Chasten Glezman Buttigieg

If you paid attention at all to the candidates running in the Democratic primaries in 2020, you are likely familiar with Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of Pete Buttigieg. I was quite impressed with Pete and Chasten myself. I've read Pete's book Shortest Way Home. I watched Chasten introduce Pete on TV when Pete withdrew from the race, and I've followed Chasten on Twitter since then. So I had some idea of his story and his personality before I picked up this book.

I Have Something to Tell You is Chasten's memoir of his life up through the point where Pete withdrew from the presidential race. The story of his early years is a "quite common" one, as he says (at least up until the point where he marries the mayor of South Bend and then supports him as his spouse in his bid for the White House).

The commonness of Chasten's story is actually a big part of what made him so relatable as a candidate's spouse in 2020, and what helped to blow up his social media following while Pete was campaigning. He is the real deal - a midwestern kid from a hard working family who struggled with his coming out and with self assurance; who worked multiple jobs to support himself while he stumbled through majors to finally get a bachelor's degree; who ended up with more student debt than he could afford and struggled to pay it off; and who, after dating a lot of frogs, finally found and married his prince.

Chasten is an empathetic, funny and self deprecating kind of guy, and that comes across in his social media and in this book. He writes with a clear voice and an easy to read style.

I rate I Have Something to Tell You 4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I really liked this book and was glad I read it. It moved me emotionally. I recommend it.

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