Don't have time to read 420 pages of Woodward? Here is the "Fear" CHEAT SHEET"-- 10 points "to get" just from the NYT review -- the least you need for a nodding acquaintance!
[All points, except in brackets, are quotes from the NYT review]
1. Nothing in Bob Woodward’s sober and grainy new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” is especially surprising.
2. “Fear” is a typical Woodward book in that named sources for scenes, thoughts and quotations appear only sometimes.
3. Woodward dispenses in “Fear” with most of the small human details that brightened his earlier books. There is no moment like the one in “Bush at War” (2002) in which George W. Bush said to a Navy steward on
duty in the West Wing, “Ferdie, I want a hamburger.”[Do we really these brightened details?]
4. Among the primary sources for this book are clearly [Reince] Priebus; Gary D. Cohn, Trump’s former chief economic adviser; and Rob Porter, Trump’s former staff secretary'
5. Cohn is in some ways this book’s moral center. If this were a first-person novel, he would be its narrator. He is shocked at every turn by Trump’s lack of knowledge and utter lack of interest in learning anything at
all. It was pointless to prepare a presentation of any sort for him.
6. Mike Pence, the vice president, comes off as a glorified golf caddy who doesn’t want to rock the boat lest Trump tweet something mean about him.
7. About Melania Trump, [Steve] Bannon says: “Behind the scenes she’s a hammer.”
8. Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation rattles Trump to his core in “Fear.”
9. John M. Dowd, Trump’s former lawyer, does not think Trump is mentally capable of testifying to the special counsel. “Don’t testify,” he is quoted as saying. “It’s either that or an orange jump suit.”
10. If this book has a single point to drive home, it is that the president of the United States is a congenital liar.
No comments:
Post a Comment