Harare Review of Books

725 pages.

First published in September 2022.

Genre: Non-fiction.

This first appeared in The Sunday Long Read, October 24, 2022 — Issue #362.

The hurricane that was Donald Trump’s (first?) presidential term has passed, and world leaders are still counting whatever costs there may be, and picking up what pieces they may. The Divider is the latest book to take us behind the scenes of that presidency, from the perspective of two journalists, Peter Baker (The New York Times) and Susan Glasser (The New Yorker).

I rarely recommend books that I have not finished reading, but I will this one, for anyone who is curious about how Trump’s government worked, and about all of the sideshows. There’s light gossip—like Melania versus Ivanka, and how Trump styles his hair. There are funny and/or alarming anecdotes—the “cruise missile cocktail party” is memorable, as is Trump’s approach to foreign policy as shown by the NATO near-disaster, his interactions with Merkel, and how Abe did his best. 

The authors make a valiant attempt to help the reader make sense of the random shenanigans that the Trump White House and his cabinet generated. It, being a fairly large task, means this is not a quick read, running to 725 pages, of which around sixty percent is the book itself. It’s the kind of book you might enjoy keeping at your bedside to exclaim over for thirty minutes before you sleep, if that’s your thing (as it is mine). 

Quick note: I, of course, as an outsider, am non-partisan; I have, however, seen a few reviews that admire how balanced this portrayal is.