Completed: 9/23/2021
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: The Washington Post
Review:
I have come to realize that, for the most part, journalists treat a chapter in a book the same way that they treat a column in a paper. Maybe an extended column. This means that major players are reintroduced repeatedly at the beginning of each chapter. Some exceptions are made (Trump, for example, is not reintroduced as President), but I have read enough books written by journalists that I have come to realize this as a consistent behavior. In addition, "background" information is provided at the front of each chapter which serves as a rehash of material provided in previous chapters. This makes it feel like the book spends half of its time repeating itself and sometimes it does this repetition multiple times. It is frustrating to read a book like this. Several times I went forward and backward in the audio thinking that I had mistakenly pushed a button and jumped back. On the bright side, it makes it much easier to fall asleep when listening (though much harder to find your place when you wake up).
Those are the faults. On the bright side, there is a lot of information in the book and I had not heard all of it before. It helps that the information is all in one place on one topic rather than the scatter of news that comes in daily. It helped focus my attention on the issues being presented. Learning how the Trump response was a failure despite genuine efforts to get things done helps point out why having people in high places who do not understand governing in general is a bad idea.
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