Review of Karl’s Front Row at the Trump Show…
[Note from Steve: I’d originally scheduled this for next Wednesday, but that would be anti-climactic, right? Also, Halloween is tomorrow. Your best plan is to skip it this year–some towns have cancelled their festivities, and with reason–but, whatever you do, be safe doing it. Protect your fellow human beings!]
Front Row at the Trump Show. Jonathan Karl, author (Dutton). This isn’t the best anti-Trump vaccine there is; Cohen’s wins that prize (recommended reading for anyone wanting to understand Trump’s crazy mafia and its Don). But Karl’s book takes a look at the sociopathic man from the media’s point of view, that fourth branch of the American political scene that the wannabe autocrat calls “the enemy of the people” (just like any autocrat of the last century, or this one).
What any intelligent reader can conclude here is that the media helped create the monster. Trump took off in 2015 because he became the media’s story many times. No one believed he was a serious contender for even the nomination, let alone the presidency. While their fascination was more akin to little kids’ as they laugh at the antics of a caged monkey in a zoo, Trump was really the lumbering and vicious caged and knuckle-dragging silverback…and they set him loose. (That’s insulting our simian friends, of course.)
In a sense, this is Karl’s memoire, and it’s basically intertwined with Trump, starting out when the reporter tried to interview Michael Jackson and his new wife, who were hiding out in the Trump tower (that glitzy building received its due in A.B. Carolan’s futuristic novel Mind Games—Trump skipped several floor numbers, by the way, so that it would appear taller). The book is a major reporter’s view of that crazy, incompetent Trump administration, so there are some insights to be had. It almost seems that Karl is the moth attracted to that evil flame, though, so who knows what will become of him in the days and decades AT (“After Trump”). I particularly like the portrait of Sean Spicer, but Trump has hired many incompetents, and fired many who showed some competence too. Maybe there’s not enough of that here.
So yawn, another book about Trump? Hopefully on November 3 or soon after, we have a good idea if America came to its senses and booted the worst US president ever out on his butt. If not, I might have to spend the next four years taunting and blasting him every way I can. Hopefully the parallel with 1930s Germany (Hitler loaded the courts in 1933 and Kristallnacht occurred on November 9 and 10 in 1938) will have fizzled and we’ll be safe with Joe Biden. If not, we should all be dedicated to make Trump wish he had never run for president…and that should include the media.
But, returning to Karl’s book, except for the insights into the media’s complicity and knocking how the Trump staff treats the media, there’s not much new here. It seems that everyone is writing a book about Trump these days. Like Woodward’s, Bolten’s, and the niece’s, this is one that you don’t need to read because if you find a lot here you didn’t already know, you haven’t been paying attention. Read Paul Krugman’s book instead and learn some economics theory, in particular how Trump is ruining the American economy. You’ll be far ahead of Trump who knows zero about business, let alone economics! Of course, he tweets a lot more than he reads. Maybe he can do flash fiction after he loses the election?
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Comments are always welcome!
Death on the Danube. At the end of Son of Thunder, #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, ex-MI6 agent and ex-Scotland Yard inspector Esther Brookstone and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden finally say their I-do’s. At the beginning of this new novel, #3 in the series, they embark on their honeymoon cruise down the romantic Danube.
When a strange passenger who is traveling alone is murdered, Bastiann takes over the investigation because the river was declared international waters in the Treaty of Paris. Who really is this gaunt victim? And who on the list of passengers and crewmembers is the assassin? Mystery, thrills, suspense, and romance await readers who join them in their journey. You can’t take this trip now because of COVID, but you can join them in spirit. Available in ebook and print format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Walmart, etc.) and affiliated library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardner, etc.). Click to see the book trailer.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
