Disloyal : a Memoir

This is not a pleasant book, and Michael Cohen is not a pleasant character. He comes across as a crook who finally got caught, and is now desperately trying to redeem himself through abject mea maxima culpas. Consider him a rather unreliable narrator.
Nonetheless, he provides insight into what it's like to work with Donald Trump. To the extent that it chronicles the Trump presidency, obviously this book will become obsolete on Jan. 21, 2021 at the latest. But it also provides some insight into what it's like to live under Trump's spell, to see him as someone worth admiring and fighting for. This, despite not just knowing what sort of person Trump was and is, but actively carrying out a lot of his dirty work. This part gives some amount of insight into the eternal question of how a Hitler or a Trump could have been elected, and how demagogues hold sway over populations.
If you don't want to buy the book so as not to give Cohen any royalties, by all means borrow it from your library. I, for one, found it more interesting than Bob Woodward's [b:Rage|53317913|Rage|Bob Woodward|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597575057l/53317913.SY75.jpg|81657197], which came out around the same time.

Ghostwritten, I assume, since he mentions getting a ghost writer when he was going to write a book that praises Trump, but quite entertaining. He says we'll hate him but I did not for most of the book. It's told as the sorrowful tale of one who was in a cult, now out seeing the error of his ways. His love for Trump is convincing even as he sees the horribleness he is part of. I believe all his stories and his portrait of Trump certainly matches all the evidence and what I've read in [b:Rage|53317913|Rage|Bob Woodward|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597575057l/53317913.SY75.jpg|81657197] which I read at the same time. When he finally gets arrested I was pleased to see him suffer, if even that can be believed. Is this a book of a reformed man? Or just a vengeful hit job? Hard to tell, especially since it's ghosted so I can't get close enough to Mr Cohen's true thoughts.

There's no quick fix for a country in which this could happen, no matter what the next administration may do and there's no instant transformation of a man from one who can do what he does while in the cult to one who would never act that way again given the right circumstances. Will the evangelicals get to hear how Trump was playing them and learn anything? I don't think they'll get so far as to even find out they were played and so many in this country are still being played. I suppose there are still many Nazis in modern Germany too.

I enjoyed, mostly, reading this, the stories acting as a respite from the horrible world we're living in. The awfulness, I fear, will remain for while but maybe it can be covered over with something more pleasant soon.