Fire and Fury - 3.5 Stars
Unbelievable - 5 Stars
I am doing a joint-review because I really don't like giving this douchenozzle any more attention than he's already received for the last couple years. I also don't feel it necessary to do any kind of in-depth review. No one supporting him is going to change their mind because of anything I write, and I am not going to waste the time. Trumplethinskin sucks and I look forward to the day when he is out of office and we can start correcting the massive mistakes piling up daily under this "administration".
I read Fire and Fury because, of course. I went into it knowing that there would likely be very little new information. Because of the intensity of coverage due to the giant man-baby waddling around the White House and his various golf courses, we know everything. All the time.
It is EXHAUSTING.
I long for a simpler time when I went a few days without hearing President Obama's name and it was okay, because he was an adult doing his job and taking his responsibilities seriously as the president of the greatest nation on earth.
Anyway. There is nothing new or groundbreaking here. If you recognize the fact that Trumplethinskin is among the dumbest of the dumb and is surrounded by scum-sucking gutter rats, nothing in this book will surprise you. It's basically a summary of the shit we have been living through since he was "elected". We already knew that a lot of the people in the book are awful. I did enjoy, however, the constant reminders about how dumb Trumplethinskin's sons are, and that Ivanka is not much better. In fact, Ivanka and her husband are collectively referred to as Jarvanka. Bannon is there is in all his grizzled, disgusting glory, and it is all so stupidly ridiculous that THIS is what is currently operating our government.
So, because this book was such a bombardment of complete and utter grossness, it was necessary to follow it up with a look from the outside, of sorts.
Tur's book follows Trumplethinskin in the same chaotic way, but the chaos comes from life on the campaign trail as Tur alternates between those details and then episodes from Election Day. I can not imagine doing her job, and for covering him as long as she did. When a candidate running for office to lead the most powerful country on the planet, perhaps that candidate should not be implying that he admired(?) Putin for executing journalists. But this is true. He discussed it at a rally. Probably more than once.
I initially rated this book a four-star, but the more I reflected on it, I decided it deserved five. After all, Tur survived the constant movement as the campaign went city to city to city. I can barely stomach seeing this moron's face on the book cover, I don't know how she managed it for months on end.
Here are a few of my fave quotes from each book:
Fire and Fury
"There was a lack of coherent message because there was nobody to write a coherent message - just one more instance of disregarding political craft" (page 148).
"After months of defending Bannon against liberal media innuendo, Kushner had concluded that Bannon was an anti-Semite" (page 140). Um hellooooo....what took him so long????
"George W. Bush, on the dais, supplied what seemed likely to become the historic footnote to the Trump address: 'That's some weird shit' " (page 40). I hate to say it, but I have said it for a while now, pretty much from that event on January 20th - W is looking better and better in the review mirror as this clusterfuck of a presidency rolls on.
Unbelievable
"He is the polar opposite of President Obama. Where Obama's rhetoric soars, Trump's rhetoric slithers. While Obama eats arugula, Trump scars Burger King. Where Obama is controlled and calculating, Trump is petulant and loud" (page 80). Yes, this, a thousand times.
Overall, you already know if you are going to read Fire and Fury. I would recommend Unbelievable if you are choosing between the two. Honestly, Fire and Fury needed a bit better editing, there were some typos and errors of that nature. And like I said, reliving it constantly is exhausting. Unbelievable is less exhausting, but no less frustrating. There were so many times his campaign should have been sunk.
