A middling political memoir that may appeal to die-hard anti-Trumpers.
The former director of the FBI seeks a pound of revenge in a combined memoir and defense of the values of an independent Department of Justice.
Before heading the FBI, Comey was a U.S. attorney, a defense attorney in private practice, and a federal prosecutor. Much of this book, a fairly unremarkable follow-up to A Higher Loyalty(2018), centers on the juicier cases he pursued. In pre–9/11 New York, he took a special interest in the Mafia, going after members of the Gambino family. Of Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, Comey writes, “The guy may have killed nineteen people and devoted his life to a savage criminal organization, but…Gravano’s guilty plea and cooperation meant the feds were finally going to get [John] Gotti.” The cops-and-robbers stuff is all well and good, but the meat of the book concerns more recent matters. Comey has nothing good to say about Donald Trump, who demanded his fealty and, when not granted it, fired him. Trump, writes the author, “lied more often and about more things than any leader in our history, but he and his followers also did something profoundly dangerous: they attacked the idea that truth exists.” Comey spares no scorn for William Barr (“How could an accomplished lawyer start channeling the president in using words like ‘no collusion’ and FBI ‘spying’?”), assails Robert Mueller for a too-long, too-vague report on Trump’s Russian collusion that “left his work susceptible to cynical distortion,” and defends his choice to reveal the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails that helped land Trump the White House: “Even in hindsight,” he writes wanly, “I believe it was the best thing for the FBI and for the Department of Justice”—institutions that, he concludes, must be rebuilt and kept free of political interference.
A middling political memoir that may appeal to die-hard anti-Trumpers.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-79912-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A mostly compelling account of one woman’s struggles within Trumpworld.
An insider’s account of the rampant misconduct within the Trump administration, including the tumult surrounding the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
Hutchinson, who served as an assistant to Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, gained national prominence when she testified to the House Select Committee, providing possibly the most damaging portrait of Trump’s erratic behavior to date. In her hotly anticipated memoir, the author traces the challenges and triumphs of her upbringing in New Jersey and the work (including a stint as an intern with Sen. Ted Cruz) that led her to coveted White House internships and eventual positions in the Office of Legislative Affairs and with Meadows. While the book offers few big reveals beyond her testimony (many details leaked before publication), her behind-the-scenes account of the chaotic Trump administration is intermittently insightful. Her initial portrait of Trump is less critical than those written by other former staffers, as the author gauges how his actions were seemingly stirred more by vanity and fear of appearing weak, rather than pure malevolency. For example, she recalls how he attended an event without a mask because he didn’t want to smear his face bronzer. Hutchinson also provides fairly nuanced portraits of Meadows and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who, along with Trump, eventually turned against her. She shares far more negative assessments about others in Trump’s orbit, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and adviser Rudy Giuliani, recounting how Giuliani groped her backstage during Trump’s Jan. 6 speech. The narrative lags after the author leaves the White House, but the story intensifies as she’s faced with subpoenas to testify and is forced to undergo deep soul-searching before choosing to sever ties with Trump and provide the incriminating information that could help take him down.
A mostly compelling account of one woman’s struggles within Trumpworld.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781668028285
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
© Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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