On Books & Reading: About ‘MacTrump’ and other Trumpian Titles

Hi there, Dear Reader. It is early afternoon here in New Hometown, Florida. Currently, the temperature is 89˚F (32˚C) under partly sunny skies. With the wind blowing from the west-southwest at 11 MPH (18 KM/H) and humidity at 58%, the feels-like temperature is 99˚F (37˚C) The forecast for today calls for light rain throughout the day and a high of 91˚F (33˚C). Tonight, skies will be partly cloudy, and the low will be 76˚F (25˚C). The Air Quality Index (AQI) is 32 or Good.

As you know, this week I ordered three books with former President Donald Trump as the main character. One, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year (Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker) is non-fiction; the other two – MacTrump: A Shakespearean Tragicomedy of the Trump Administration, Part I (Ian Doescher and Jacopo della Quercia) and And the Last Trump Shall Sound: A Future History of America (Harry Turtledove, James Morrow, and Cat Rambo) are satires.

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I received MacTrump on Wednesday, so – obviously – I started reading that one first. I have been reading Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars series on and off since 2014, and I have enjoyed the nine “plays” in the saga, so I was naturally curious how Doescher and della Quercia (a pseudonym) interpret the tumultuous first two years of the Trump Administration as, per the book’s title, a Shakespearean tragicomedy.

Here’s how Quirk Books, the Philadelphia-based publisher, describes MacTrump:

For readers craving a humorous antidote to the sound and the fury of American politics, this clever satire, written in iambic pentameter in the style of Shakespeare, wittily fictionalizes the events of the first two years of the Trump administration.

No one thought that MacTrump—Lord of MacTrump Towers, Son of New York—would ascend to the highest position in the kingdom. Yet with the help of his unhappy but dutiful wife Lady MacTrump, his clever daughter Dame Desdivanka, and his coterie of advisers, MacTrump is comfortably ensconced in the White Hold as President of the United Fiefdoms, free to make proclamations to his subjects through his favorite messenger, McTweet.

The Democrati, mourning the loss of their cherished leader O’Bama, won’t give up without a fight. They still remember the disastrous reign of George the Lesser, and they can see Putain’s dark influence on MacTrump. Their greatest hope is MacMueller, tasked with investigating the plot that empowered MacTrump’s rise to the throne.

As Desdivanka schemes to overthrow her father’s councilors, and as Donnison and Ericson—trapped in their own Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-like storyline—prove useless to their father, MacTrump soon realizes he has no true allies. Will he be able to hold on to his throne? Only time will tell in this tragicomic tale of ambition, greed, and royal ineptitude. – MacTrump product description in Amazon

It usually takes me a good while to read a book from cover to cover – I usually read a couple of chapters from one book on my To Be Read (TBR) pile, then read a couple of chapters from another, and so on and so forth.[1] I don’t, as a rule, sit down (or lie down) with a book and devote my undivided attention to it; I usually have other things – such as writing – to do, so I read books in bite-size chunks, let’s say.

Well, yesterday was a bit stormy; thunderstorms popped up sometime around 1 or 2 PM and I shut down my PC so it would not get fried by an errant lightning bolt. This gave me enough time to read over half of MacTrump, and I must say…this is a deliriously funny book (although I daresay that wearers of the red MAGA caps may not find it as humorous). 

Here, for instance, is the play’s Prologue, which – like those found in, say, William Shakespeare’s The Merry Rise of Skywalker and other books in the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars series – is delivered by a Chorus:

Chorus: One nation, under God, divides in twain –

Half to the right, their power in the rise,

Half to the left, in fury and disdain –

Two peoples held by aging, fragile ties.

Is this America, which once, so proud,

Above the height of lesser nations stood?

How hath there come this overwhelming cloud

To darken freedom’s light, so pure and good?

Election, like an axe assaults a stump,

Hath torn the country easily in two,

And, from the ashes, riseth one MacTrump,

Whose government begins with much ado.

If thou hast humor, hear our history,

Which may prove comedy or tragedy. – Ian Doescher and Jacopo della Quercia.

The cast of characters includes MacTrump, Lady MacTrump, Dame Desdivanka, her brothers Ericson and Donnison, Lord Jared Kushrew, Lady Kellyanne Boleyn, McTweet, Michael LaCohen, Fooliani, Gargamiller, Stephen Bannox, Mitch McTuttle, and many, many more heroes, villains, and hangers-on that strut and fret their hour upon the stage. Momentous events – such as the firing of Trump’s first National Security Advisor, Gen. Michael Flynn – as well as ridiculous ones (including Trump’s overt attempts to claim his Inauguration Day crowds were far larger than Barack Obama’s) are recalled here, but in a satirical way that befits a tragicomedy by Shakespeare himself.

It’s a humorous book indeed, Dear Reader, and I’ll probably review it when all the hurly-burly’s done. (It also has me wishing I could come up with a Shakespeare-style play, too. Alas, I am a decent scribe, but not that good.)

As for the other two books, Amazon says that the package with I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year and And the Last Trump Shall Sound: A Future History of America is “Out for Delivery.”

Well, that’s all the news I have to share with you, Dear Reader, so I will take my leave of you. You know, “parting is such sweet sorrow” and all that jazz. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.

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[1] My mother did this, too.