Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump (2020. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-9821-4146-2)
I get it, Dr. Trump. I really do. After spending time reading your analyses of your uncle, former president (and hopefully, soon-to-be convicted felon) Donald J. Trump, after wading through your version of family history beginning with the great grandparents of the House of Trump, carefully assessing your views of the patriarch of the family’s real estate business, grandfather Fred Trump (and his often ill, never child-centric wife), my conclusion about your book is exactly the conclusion I came to with respect to Right-wing iconoclast Mike Savage’s terrible book, Banned in Britain: you could have spared us all a long, tedious slide into Trump slimedom by writing a succinct opinion piece for any major newspaper. Instead, readers, who must spend hours of time inside a very fucked up family, are treated to few new revelations and asked to navigate a fairly listless, factless, and uninspired reportage of grievances you hold against Grandpa Fred, with a few sidelong glares tossed The Donald’s way.
Sure, I understand that Grandpa was aloof, unloving, and really a no-good bastard bent at all costs to make money: the one and only god he and his younger son, the Donald, worship. It’s obvious you feel you father, the eldest Trump son, Freddie, got a raw deal; that the Klown Prince of the family, the dilettante playboy-turned serial husband and money loser stole your father’s inheritance (and yours), not to mention your dad’s rightful place in the sun. But really, aren’t you, in your indictment, overlooking your own father’s failings, including his inability to manage money or his sobriety, to toss vitriol at a dead man? Sure, you throw The Donald into the same pit of inequity and dishonesty and “money at all costs” that claimed Grandpa Fred’s soul. And you do include some casual, non-specific, generic references to the former president’s sociopathic behaviors. But that’s not new information, revelatory or, likely-given the multiple axes you juggle as you grind them against the lodestone of history-to convince anyone who believes the chief liar’s lies of your major premise: that the man is dangerous and shouldn’t be given sharp scissors, much less nuclear warheads.
I so wanted to like this book. I cannot stand the man who’s the subject of this tome. And yet, I came away a very disappointed reader.
2 stars out of 5. Wait for the movie version starring Christian Bale as The Donald … (JK)
Peace
Mark
(Find my review of Savage’s hit piece by typing in “Banned in Britain ” in this website’s search bar, above right.)
