Johnny reviewed The Captain and the Glory by Dave Eggers
Shallow and unimaginative satire
2 stars
What if the USA were a constantly moving ship on the ocean? What if the US President was the captain of the ship? What if Donald Trump was a really stupid captain? That's the premise of this book, and that's what it keeps to. It builds a ship-analogy for most of what happened during Donald Trump's presidency, sometimes pretty ridiculous ones. While doing so, it fails to be witty or insightful – it's a child's understanding of how the world works, it infantilises the Trump character, it falls short of finding a more nuanced critique than "everything used to be great but then a bunch of idiots came and ruined everything".
It's a bit tragic, because at some points the author shows that he could have done better. The best parts are those that don't try to be smug, the small parts that are about the individual humans and their …
What if the USA were a constantly moving ship on the ocean? What if the US President was the captain of the ship? What if Donald Trump was a really stupid captain? That's the premise of this book, and that's what it keeps to. It builds a ship-analogy for most of what happened during Donald Trump's presidency, sometimes pretty ridiculous ones. While doing so, it fails to be witty or insightful – it's a child's understanding of how the world works, it infantilises the Trump character, it falls short of finding a more nuanced critique than "everything used to be great but then a bunch of idiots came and ruined everything".
It's a bit tragic, because at some points the author shows that he could have done better. The best parts are those that don't try to be smug, the small parts that are about the individual humans and their struggle on this ship.
