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3.25 AVERAGE
3.25 AVERAGE
Last year I took a 6-day vacation to Spain with my friends. Notably, I also took a vacation from the news cycle. The day I left, the White House had just hired a new Communications Director. I checked Twitter before my flight home, and it was full of jokes about Scaramucci's firing, his unhinged comments to The New Yorker, and his terrible congratulatory text to his post-partum wife.
In a week, I felt like I had missed a year of news. I am glad I read this book, even after the initial zeitgeist died down, just for contextualizing how abnormal the sheer number of scandals/acts of incompetency are in this administration, and how impossible it is to keep up.
So many thoughts on the book, but the level of access Wolff was able to get is pretty incredible. This will be on J-school syllabi in years to come, for sure. I definitely wish there had been tighter editing. And more clarity with the sourcing. I get is a huge challenge with this kind of text: so much off the record, and so many unreliable narrators. I feel like Wolff bought into too many self-serving narratives (Javanka as moderating forces; Bannon as a strategic genius, etc.) that staffers are trying to sell about themselves.
There are just so many tiny anecdotes in there that make it a worthwhile read, though.
In a week, I felt like I had missed a year of news. I am glad I read this book, even after the initial zeitgeist died down, just for contextualizing how abnormal the sheer number of scandals/acts of incompetency are in this administration, and how impossible it is to keep up.
So many thoughts on the book, but the level of access Wolff was able to get is pretty incredible. This will be on J-school syllabi in years to come, for sure. I definitely wish there had been tighter editing. And more clarity with the sourcing. I get is a huge challenge with this kind of text: so much off the record, and so many unreliable narrators. I feel like Wolff bought into too many self-serving narratives (Javanka as moderating forces; Bannon as a strategic genius, etc.) that staffers are trying to sell about themselves.
There are just so many tiny anecdotes in there that make it a worthwhile read, though.
Book was a fun read, but one I couldn't take too seriously. It read like a gossip mag, which I was completely ok with, just difficult to not perceive it as comedy! Le sigh... this is our real life. Ugh! Entertaining writer, with a subject matter that gave him so much to work with. I'd recommend this book as light comedic reading, with serious tongue clicking and tea sipping! Enjoy!
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Michael Wolff deserves credit for writing a compelling insider's look at the first year of the Trump presidency. He had access that none of the daily White House press corps had, and he took full advantage. The real revelations in the book are not the big scoops that everyone talked about upon the release of "Fire and Fury," but rather the small details about how the president makes decisions and how the people in his orbit deal with him on a daily basis.
Having said that, I take issue with his portrayal of the White House (or maybe it's the Washington) press corps as a singular unit with a narrative (or "agenda," if you prefer) that Wolff seems to claim was up-ended by the election of Trump. I'm not a Washington journalist so I can't say for certain that this portrayal isn't true, but it seems facile. It's the kind of portrayal that people who hate the news media love to see. The idea that journalists covering Washington do so in pursuit of a narrative is itself a narrative.
Plus he makes so many events and issues from the past year -- Charlottesville, the Russia investigation -- seem like parlor games, trivializing their importance and their impact on people's real lives.
Still, as Wolff himself will readily tell you, he had access to the tumultuous Trump White House that no one else had, and that alone makes this a book worth reading.
Having said that, I take issue with his portrayal of the White House (or maybe it's the Washington) press corps as a singular unit with a narrative (or "agenda," if you prefer) that Wolff seems to claim was up-ended by the election of Trump. I'm not a Washington journalist so I can't say for certain that this portrayal isn't true, but it seems facile. It's the kind of portrayal that people who hate the news media love to see. The idea that journalists covering Washington do so in pursuit of a narrative is itself a narrative.
Plus he makes so many events and issues from the past year -- Charlottesville, the Russia investigation -- seem like parlor games, trivializing their importance and their impact on people's real lives.
Still, as Wolff himself will readily tell you, he had access to the tumultuous Trump White House that no one else had, and that alone makes this a book worth reading.
Great read but hard to keep focused on, with the constant and daily news about the most recent White House scandals. But it was a good overview of events up to the point that the book was published. Some interesting perspectives on the players.
An over-hyped, tell-all about our current administration, which provides an insider's perspective on the multiple turbulences in the President's first year. Reading this initially felt somewhat cathartic at times, but as I continued, the book began to drag on and on.
This book could be summarized in a single sentence: the President is a child, and surrounded by a fracturing staff of equal degrees of selfishness and ineptitude. There is no resolution to this story and it will leave you questioning the next 3 years.
This book could be summarized in a single sentence: the President is a child, and surrounded by a fracturing staff of equal degrees of selfishness and ineptitude. There is no resolution to this story and it will leave you questioning the next 3 years.
This falls between a 3 and a 4 for me. It’s informative in giving details of behind the scenes for stuff that we’ve been watching play out. I don’t really know how necessary it is to read for those who have been paying attention to politics over the past few years.
Good to capture this info though, so it’s preserved for our future.
Good to capture this info though, so it’s preserved for our future.
The president of the United States has the emotional stability of a two-year-old, the intelligence of a 7-year-old, and the thought processes of a 70 year old with dementia. And he still hasn't been impeached.
Oh, but the book? I mean, it's almost entertaining, if you forget that it's really happening right now, it flows well, editing would be nice (I'm so sick of making that complaint), and Michael Wolff really thinks he's above it all, doesn't he?
Unfortunately, someone has provided me with a copy of Fear, so I still have to pick up a book with Trump's face on it for the next little while. But I feel obligated.
Oh, but the book? I mean, it's almost entertaining, if you forget that it's really happening right now, it flows well, editing would be nice (I'm so sick of making that complaint), and Michael Wolff really thinks he's above it all, doesn't he?
Unfortunately, someone has provided me with a copy of Fear, so I still have to pick up a book with Trump's face on it for the next little while. But I feel obligated.
Crazy Crazy Crazy...
I already knew most of the stories, but the details of it were crazier then i thought.... Jarvanka and Banon "fight" was "epicly kids funny".
Good read.
Ps: it should have been more Scaramucci... that guy is hilarious
I already knew most of the stories, but the details of it were crazier then i thought.... Jarvanka and Banon "fight" was "epicly kids funny".
Good read.
Ps: it should have been more Scaramucci... that guy is hilarious
I have so many conflicting feelings on this book, that I'm not even sure where to start.
I alternated between laughing out loud and wanting to cry. More than once I felt like I would sleep better at night if this were fiction instead of non-fiction. I hated everyone in this book. At one point, I found myself vaguely rooting for Bannon in trying to get Jarvanka out and then felt immediately disgusted with myself. The writing was really overdone and needed a better editor. I sometimes think being a book editor must be the BEST JOB EVER and then I read something like this and change my mind.
I do think there's a lot of veracity to this book, though, I took it all with a grain of salt. I was entertained but in that awful way that includes a perma-cringe. I read this mostly in the evenings after my kids went to bed and, I kid you not, there was not one night I didn't fall asleep on the couch while reading it. I do this occasionally, but not every time while reading the same book. I think my subconscious was trying to make take this in small doses because it definitely leaves on feeling a bit panicked (where are the adults in charge?), despaired (how exactly did this happen, again?), and hopeless (how do we recover from this?).
I did take some small comfort in having my assumptions about the major players validated in this book - they are inept, clueless, egotistical, and rash. At least we know what we're dealing with? I would suggest this book to Republicans, because at some point they need to stand up and put the kibosh on this whole circus. This is not how normal adults act, much less one who is the President, and this is not how the American government is supposed to work. Let's pull it together, people.
I alternated between laughing out loud and wanting to cry. More than once I felt like I would sleep better at night if this were fiction instead of non-fiction. I hated everyone in this book. At one point, I found myself vaguely rooting for Bannon in trying to get Jarvanka out and then felt immediately disgusted with myself. The writing was really overdone and needed a better editor. I sometimes think being a book editor must be the BEST JOB EVER and then I read something like this and change my mind.
I do think there's a lot of veracity to this book, though, I took it all with a grain of salt. I was entertained but in that awful way that includes a perma-cringe. I read this mostly in the evenings after my kids went to bed and, I kid you not, there was not one night I didn't fall asleep on the couch while reading it. I do this occasionally, but not every time while reading the same book. I think my subconscious was trying to make take this in small doses because it definitely leaves on feeling a bit panicked (where are the adults in charge?), despaired (how exactly did this happen, again?), and hopeless (how do we recover from this?).
I did take some small comfort in having my assumptions about the major players validated in this book - they are inept, clueless, egotistical, and rash. At least we know what we're dealing with? I would suggest this book to Republicans, because at some point they need to stand up and put the kibosh on this whole circus. This is not how normal adults act, much less one who is the President, and this is not how the American government is supposed to work. Let's pull it together, people.