Rage (vuoden 2020 painos)

A continuation of Woodward's exceptional reporting from inside the Trump White House (in "Fear"), this is a detailed explication of the administration's activities through the summer of 2020, regarding North Korea, racial polarization, the handling of the pandemic, and more. The portrait of Trump demonstrates his strengths and his weaknesses, his terrible cynicism, and the inevitable, relentless devolution of the government to align with his big ego (or small ego, depending how you view it). Interesting is the portrait of the reptilian Lindsey Graham, a shape-shifter of Dickensian stature who is a master technician of the American bottom-feeding politics. ( )

While I understand there is a timeliness to this and other similar books about the Trump presidency, I am disappointed at what wasn't in the book. There were very few, only surfacey, references to the relationship between Putin and Trump (at least that I can recall, upon completion of the book). But the biggest oversight, in my opinion, was there was virtually no mentioning Trump's almost-every-weekend trips to Mar-a-Lago or his other properties. Being President is a full-time job, not a M-F job. In conclusion, as I mention in nearly every book review, I wish there were 1/2 star designations, as I would truthfully give this best seller only 3-1/2 stars... I realize this may be an unpopular opinion, but it's how I feel. ( )

Pretty Danged Objective - Can Safely Recommend to Liberals and Conservatives

Well it is Bob Woodward, so you kinda know what you are getting into when you read this, BUT it is clear that Woodward works very hard to stay impartial throughout the book. He does this by providing mostly direct quotes from his many interviews with Trump (I think seventeen in all). You can chunk everything else out besides the direct quotes of Trump and you'd still have about 50% of the book left. In my opinion, a direct quote speaks for itself. An argument could be made that perhaps the quotes are chosen selectively (I don't think so though) but, if nothing else, these interviews provide a fascinating glimpse inside the Whitehouse and inside the mind of Donald Trump.

I became much more aware of Jared Kushner and his prominent role in the election and government of Trump. He sometimes had a strange way of getting his message across about Trump, but in retrospect it appears he was right on target most of the time.

Lindsey Graham also features prominently in Rage, as Trump's "First Friend" in congress. Graham's advice to trump (usually unheeded) is throughout the book and his candid interviews are riveting.

This book was also a good read because it offers us glimpses inside Trump's head during the early months of COVID19. We see the advice he was being given, as well as his own thoughts on what to do about it. I also enjoyed being able to read the personal correspondence between Trump and Kim Jong-un. There were many letters between the two that led up to and followed their historic meeting in Singapore first and in the Korean DMZ second. Truly fascinating stuff.

Woodward is of course a liberal, but I honestly feel as though 95% of this book is without slant. There is some bias in there, but when it comes, for the most part, it is when Woodward is giving his own personal views and he identifies them as such.

I can recommend this book to both my liberal and conservative friends, and basically to anyone who enjoys learning more about our Presidents.

4 out of 5 stars ( )

Rage is the second book that Bob Woodward has written about Donald Trump. Fear was the title of the first book. Donald Trump was disappointed with the first book, and complained that he was never interviewed for it. At the time, Trump's staff would not give Woodward access to Trump. For the second book, Bob Woodward was able to interview Donald Trump no less than seventeen times, and queried Trump extensively about the problems confronting America and his Presidency.

During a television interview shortly after Fear was published, Woodward was asked to give his bottomline assessment of Trump's leadership. Woodward replied, "Let's hope to God we don't have a crisis." We had a crisis, the coronavirus. In the midst of the coronavirus, we had the crisis over Black Lives Matter versus Trump's Law and Order. And Woodward gave Trump every opportunity to explain his actions and inactions.

Woodward ends the book with the following paragraph:

"When his performance as president is taken in its entirety, I can reach only one conclusion: Trump is the wrong man for the job."

https://cursoryremarksaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2020/10/fear-by-bob-woodward.ht...

Do Not Go Gentle... Rage, Rage
Review of the Simon & Schuster Audio edition (September 2020)

The title of Rage is more prescient now, in hindsight, after the November 3, 2020 election. Trump's flailing attempts to have the election results overturned are more reflective of rage now rather than of any displayed during the course of the book. Woodward interviewed Trump in 18 phone-calls during the research for this book which primarily focusses on the Trump administration's reaction to the worldwide 2020 COVID Coronavirus pandemic.

Rage provides a good historical record of what was known, said and when about the COVID crisis. The U.S. opposition was successful in having Trump "wear" the resulting death toll of the pandemic, but it doesn't seem that any other world leader was any more successful in that regard, considering the current massive worldwide 2nd wave (not counting several island nations which had an additional barrier that most did not). Even the secretive Russians have recently admitted that their death toll is actually triple that of what was previously revealed.

I listened to the audiobook edition of Rage, which includes an additional 13 minutes of audio excerpts from the Trump/Woodward phone calls. During the course of the interviews Trump had regularly castigated Woodward for what he expected would be a "bad book" (i.e. one that unfairly showed him in a bad light). Woodward has done an honest job on the transcriptions and has certainly not invented anything. What might be considered unfair is that Trump's speech is left to display all of his rambling digressions and interruptions and repetitions. That sort of thing would likely have been edited out and smoothed over in books that were more fawning about their subject. Woodward lets it tell its own part of the story.

Rage is currently (as of late December 2020) the 44th book in the Trump Tell-alls List on Goodreads, which has a somewhat shocking current total of 226 books. It is likely to climb higher into the top 10 as more people read it. It is the 2nd of Bob Woodward's books on the Trump presidency and was preceded by [book:Fear: Trump in the White House|41012533] (September 2018) and will be followed by an as-yet-unnamed third book (2021?).

I read Rage as part of my reading survey of various books in relation to the 2020 American Election. As a Canadian I’ve generally ignored American politics and elections in past years, but the drama of the situation in 2020 has heightened my interest. ( )