Fire, fury and the furore

It's the dream of every book reviewer – indeed, probably the dream of every bookish person – to for once have everybody in the world talking about a book. But it only very rarely happens, and when it does, much to the dismay of those same bookish people, it's almost never a good book. The latest example is perhaps the most dramatic example in American publishing history: Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff. A distillation of the months Wolff spent enjoying open access to the White House and, he claims, over 200 people connected with it, the book is a damning portrait of the dysfunction of the Trump White House.

The book's success has been nothing less than stratospheric. A huge portion of that success was directly due to Donald Trump himself. Prior to its release, he instructed his lawyers to hit the publishers with a cease-and-desist order to quash publication, claiming the book was libelous. Such objections were a gift to the author, who gleefully pointed out that the president's actions not only guaranteed gargantuan sales of the book that was now quite literally “the book Trump doesn't want you to read”, but also went a long way to demonstrating some of Wolff's most damning assertions about a vain president with no impulse control.

Several of the people who feature in the stories Wolff relates have come forward to call the stories complete fiction; Wolff himself not only refuses to release the tape recordings he claims to possess but has also admitted that he didn't actually talk to any cabinet members; journalist fact-checkers have been chipping away at the book's many inaccuracies. Trump's defenders cried foul.

Books like this – quickly produced and trading heavily on “insider” information – succeed in direct proportion to their subjects' failure. Before Wolff, the example that stands out was Scott McClellan's 2008 exposé of the George W Bush White House, What Happened, which appeared when Bush's approval ratings were abysmal, hovering between 31 and 33 per cent.

Trump's approval ratings have been at those Bush-like depths since his first week in office. A year of name-calling aimed at public officials and heads of state and casual threats about nuclear war have primed an enormous reading audience to believe the worst about him.

Wolff's book satisfies that hunger by providing the worst: a president who can't read, a president with the attention-span of a toddler, a president who's incapable of listening or learning – a full-blown disaster in the Oval Office.

At every step of this tawdry little melodrama, the smart thing – the stable genius thing – to do would have been to ignore Fire and Fury completely, rather than to wail about it. Mr Trump's candidacy and administration has already spawned dozens of books from major publishers, with a veritable tsunami of further titles to follow in the coming months in the US alone. The president's over-reaction to Wolff's book has always been the foremost thing lending it credence.

In the end, “Fire and Fury” doesn’t have much of a narrative other than the basic march of time. It lacks an argument beyond the same Trump-is-a-dummy-and-a-nut vision that plenty of writers have peddled without asking Ailes and Bannon to dinner or hanging around the West Wing.

To the extent the book has a main character with an arc, that protagonist isn’t Trump, but Bannon – who, judging by the romantic way Wolff tends to describe him, must have been fairly willing to talk. Wolff describes Bannon alternately as “a character for Richard Ford, or John Updike, or Harry Crews,” “something of an Elmore Leonard character” and “a country music star — he was Johnny Cash.”

Even here, Wolff doesn’t reckon deeply with Bannon’s worldview. But he does capture a self-deluding air to Bannon’s adventures in Trumpism. Bannon, Wolff writes, “knew Trump to be a fundamentally emotional man, and he was certain that the deepest part of him was angry and dark.” If Wolff was actually as sharp and devastating as he believes himself to be, he might have explored how Bannon’s misreading and emotional mismanagement of Trump undermine the perception of Bannon’s strategic genius. But that’s simply not this way this book works: Why structure an argument, or even a narrative, when you can repeat some hoary gossip and throw around phrases like “joie de guerre” instead?

Wolff is a lot like Trump himself. They’re both New York creations with a genius for spinning – and existing in uneasy symbiosis with — the media. But when they got to Washington, neither was fully capable of doing the job he intended.

Wolff seems to take a lot of pleasure in insinuating that Trump can’t read. Judging by the full text of “Fire and Fury,” Wolff couldn’t write the sort of book he wanted this to be.

That credence has transformed into staggering sales figures that have barely been dented by the revolting decision of WikiLeaks to publish the entire manuscript online as a PDF. Pundits and newscasters hold up the book in the lead segments of their shows – shows that wouldn't dream of even so much as mentioning the latest novel by Elif Shafak or Neel Mukherjee. Pages of Fire and Fury are parsed with scholarly scrutiny for shades of meaning or patterns of omission; copies of the book are everywhere on Capitol Hill; for a solid week, discussions in homes and the halls of power have all centred around a book.

But they have centred around this book: an apparent mish-mash of fact, fabrication, speculation and zeitgeist-channeling. That description might be, alas, a perfect reflection of its subject.

thenational.ae

 

 

Fire, fury and the furore

Its the dream of every book reviewer indeed, probably the dream of every bookish person to for once have everybody in the world talking about a book. But it only very rarely happens, and when it does, much to the dismay of those same bookish people, its almost never a good book. The latest example is perhaps the most dramatic example in American publishing history: Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff. A distillation of the months Wolff spent enjoying open access to the White House and, he claims, over 200 people connected with it, the book is a damning portrait of the dysfunction of the Trump White House. The books success has been nothing less than stratospheric. A huge portion of that success was directly due to Donald Trump himself. Prior to its release, he instructed his lawyers to hit the publishers with a cease-and-desist order to quash publication, claiming the book was libelous. Such objections were a gift to the author, who gleefully pointed out that the presidents actions not only guaranteed gargantuan sales of the book that was now quite literally the book Trump doesnt want you to read, but also went a long way to demonstrating some of Wolffs most damning assertions about a vain president with no impulse control. Several of the people who feature in the stories Wolff relates have come forward to call the stories complete fiction; Wolff himself not only refuses to release the tape recordings he claims to possess but has also admitted that he didnt actually talk to any cabinet members; journalist fact-checkers have been chipping away at the books many inaccuracies. Trumps defenders cried foul. Books like this quickly produced and trading heavily on insider information succeed in direct proportion to their subjects failure. Before Wolff, the example that stands out was Scott McClellans 2008 expos of the George W Bush White House, What Happened, which appeared when Bushs approval ratings were abysmal, hovering between 31 and 33 per cent. Trumps approval ratings have been at those Bush-like depths since his first week in office. A year of name-calling aimed at public officials and heads of state and casual threats about nuclear war have primed an enormous reading audience to believe the worst about him. Wolffs book satisfies that hunger by providing the worst: a president who cant read, a president with the attention-span of a toddler, a president whos incapable of listening or learning a full-blown disaster in the Oval Office. At every step of this tawdry little melodrama, the smart thing the stable genius thing to do would have been to ignore Fire and Fury completely, rather than to wail about it. Mr Trumps candidacy and administration has already spawned dozens of books from major publishers, with a veritable tsunami of further titles to follow in the coming months in the US alone. The presidents over-reaction to Wolffs book has always been the foremost thing lending it credence. In the end, Fire and Fury doesnt have much of a narrative other than the basic march of time. It lacks an argument beyond the same Trump-is-a-dummy-and-a-nut vision that plenty of writers have peddled without asking Ailes and Bannon to dinner or hanging around the West Wing. To the extent the book has a main character with an arc, that protagonist isnt Trump, but Bannon who, judging by the romantic way Wolff tends to describe him, must have been fairly willing to talk. Wolff describes Bannon alternately as a character for Richard Ford, or John Updike, or Harry Crews, something of an Elmore Leonard character and a country music star he was Johnny Cash. Even here, Wolff doesnt reckon deeply with Bannons worldview. But he does capture a self-deluding air to Bannons adventures in Trumpism. Bannon, Wolff writes, knew Trump to be a fundamentally emotional man, and he was certain that the deepest part of him was angry and dark. If Wolff was actually as sharp and devastating as he believes himself to be, he might have explored how Bannons misreading and emotional mismanagement of Trump undermine the perception of Bannons strategic genius. But thats simply not this way this book works: Why structure an argument, or even a narrative, when you can repeat some hoary gossip and throw around phrases like joie de guerre instead? Wolff is a lot like Trump himself. Theyre both New York creations with a genius for spinning and existing in uneasy symbiosis with the media. But when they got to Washington, neither was fully capable of doing the job he intended. Wolff seems to take a lot of pleasure in insinuating that Trump cant read. Judging by the full text of Fire and Fury, Wolff couldnt write the sort of book he wanted this to be. That credence has transformed into staggering sales figures that have barely been dented by the revolting decision of WikiLeaks to publish the entire manuscript online as a PDF. Pundits and newscasters hold up the book in the lead segments of their shows shows that wouldnt dream of even so much as mentioning the latest novel by Elif Shafak or Neel Mukherjee. Pages of Fire and Fury are parsed with scholarly scrutiny for shades of meaning or patterns of omission; copies of the book are everywhere on Capitol Hill; for a solid week, discussions in homes and the halls of power have all centred around a book. But they have centred around this book: an apparent mish-mash of fact, fabrication, speculation and zeitgeist-channeling. That description might be, alas, a perfect reflection of its subject. thenational.ae