One does not approach a book written by a fellow named Joseph Califano expecting to hear much about the Irish-American experience. But as it turns out, Califano - who would go on to become a major power broker and policy expert in Washington - has a grandfather who was the child of Famine immigrants, a fact he recalls with great detail in his new memoir "Inside: A Public and Private Life." Califano's book charts his path from the gritty streets of 1940s Brooklyn to a the power corridors of Washington. "Grandfather Thomas Peter Gill was born in Brooklyn in 1845," Califano writes, "one of seven children for Irish immigrants John Gill, a dry-goods merchant from Ballinalee in Longford, and Mary Fahey, who had emigrated from Eyrecourt in Galway." Califano's portrait of growing up in melting pot Brooklyn - he had Italian and English, as well as Irish roots - is sharp and poignant. His mother's stories about the vaunted "Gill women" are recalled with particular emotion. Califano's parents instilled in young Joe a strong work ethic and devotion to the Church which took him from a Jesuit education to Harvard Law School. He eventually served in the Pentagon, and under Lyndon Johnson, later serving in the cabinet of President Jimmy Carter. But the best passages in Inside are devoted to his exploration of what it means to be Catholic in America (Califano was sexually abused by a priest while on a retreat in 1948), as well as the current work he does for the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, which he founded. ($30 / 539 pages / Public Affairs)