Readers who haven’t yet reached Trump burnout status will enjoy this spoof, which expertly skewers a disastrous presidency...
A quick-witted stand-up comedian parodies the ringleader of the presidential three-ring circus.
As a fitting companion piece to actor/comedian Atamanuik’s weekly Comedy Central Trump-lampooning The President Show, this snarky sendup caricatures the president’s precarious and outrageous antics before, during, and after his election. The book is divided into sections easily digested individually or altogether but preferably before a rapt crowd of politically savvy dinner guests. Our narrator is fictitious veteran columnist Kelsey Nelson, a former editor at Golf & Stream magazine. While on the green at Mar-a-Lago, Nelson befriended Trump and inspired him to commission the creation of a first-ever Presidential Pocket Library while still serving his first term in office. They hoped to pre-emptively crash-publish this “living document,” particularly before Obama was able to open his library (after all, “his time is done”). The resulting series of egocentric, self-congratulatory interviews, lurid telephone transcriptions, damning indictments, life snippets from childhood to military service to his “first love,” Mar-a-Lago, and the unpatriotic histrionics at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. are uniformly appalling and rollicking. While the author’s material is (just mildly) exaggerated, it is a depressingly accurate reflection of the president’s clumsy legacy. Highlights include an imagined Trump Tower rental application (“name of daughter, mistress, or awful son who will technically own property”), scandalous Miss Universe Moscow and North Korea Summit itineraries, official calls to Area 51 (“what if an alien picks up?”), a 2020 re-election plan, a debate prep session with Roger Ailes (Trump: “Let’s bring a black baby to the debate! He can sit in the front row and then we’ll kick him out”), and riffs on Michael Cohen and Robert Mueller. Trumpisms and buffoonery abound throughout the well-executed, whip-smart narrative, and it’s all fun and games until readers realize just how unerringly close to the bone Atamanuik’s material cuts.
Readers who haven’t yet reached Trump burnout status will enjoy this spoof, which expertly skewers a disastrous presidency in action.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-285188-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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