Gavin Newsom's new memoir

NY Times - The world may see Gavin Newsom as a smooth politician with slicked-back hair who hobnobs with San Francisco billionaires and dines at the finest restaurants in the Napa Valley (even during a pandemic). His good looks and beautiful family accentuate the image of a man whose life has been easy.

But Mr. Newsom, the California governor, looks back at his life at age 58 and sees a different figure. An awkward kid with a bowl cut and a lisp, tormented by a bully who called him Newscum, the same insult now used by President Trump. A teenager who delivered newspapers because money was tight at home. A young man who overcompensated for his dyslexia by memorizing a list of pretentious words that remain in his lexicon today.

That’s the tale Mr. Newsom unspools in his new book, “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery,” in which he explores the schisms that defined his upbringing. It is set to arrive Feb. 24 amid his ascension as a likely Democratic presidential contender and a prominent critic of Mr. Trump in a pivotal midterm election year.

Despite those circumstances, Mr. Newsom spends almost no time in the book discussing the president or recent politics, based on an early copy provided to The New York Times. And, for the most part, he ends his introspection in the weeks before he becomes governor in 2019.