The Anti-Trump Book Club is a new monthly column wherein reviewer Jim Behrle will walk us through literature that’s critical of the Racist-Grandpa-in-Chief. Follow along this month as Jim takes on Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury. —Eds.
There must be a German word fit to describe the experience of reading Fire and Fury, the phenomenal bestseller by reporter Michael Wolff, which quite simply blows the lid off the Trump White House. It must be at least one part “I told you so,” and two parts dread and fear, with a splash of pure joy. Wolff keeps the pages turning with a combination of great storytelling, remarkable behind-the-scenes access to this most unusual administration, and a breathless, breakneck urgency that grips the reader even in its quietest moments. Amid all the juicy, newsworthy tidbits of gossip, there is a clear-headed portrait of the most toxic workplace imaginable, where the daily stakes are, literally, the world.
Steve Bannon is a larger figure in Fire and Fury than even the president. Clearly, Wolff has found himself the perfect quote machine in Bannon, who alternately seems like he’s simultaneously playing everyone else and himself, and yet somehow remains the truest of true believers in the emerging Trumpism. From the unexpected victory on election night 2016, the reader is given a front-row seat to all the ensuing chaos.