‘It Reads Like a Horror Story’

A New York Times review of Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig’s new book, A Very Stable Genius, suggests the title is “savvy marketing. It’s possible to imagine both Donald J. Trump’s detractors and his admirers eagerly grasping a copy.”

“The admirers will not make it past the table of contents. Among the chapter titles: ‘Unhinged,’ ‘Shocking the Conscience,’ ‘Paranoia and Pandemonium’ and ‘Scare-a-Thon.’ This verbiage makes Rucker and Leonnig’s book sound like one more enraged polemic. It isn’t. They’re meticulous journalists, and this taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s shambolic tenure in office to date.”

“It reads like a horror story, an almost comic immorality tale. It’s as if the president, as patient zero, had bitten an aide and slowly, bite by bite, an entire nation had lost its wits and its compass.”