The Room Where it Happened by John Bolton

 The Room Where It Happened
John Bolton
Simon & Schuster, 592 pp.

Review by David Williams

In the second act of the hit musical Hamilton Aaron Burr sings us the story of the famous Madison/Hamilton compromise that led to the passage of Hamilton’s economic plan and to the US Capital being located on the banks of the Potomac. We
know of the story primarily from the recollections of Thomas Jefferson, who naturally puts himself at the center. The compromise happened at a dinner for the three men hosted by Jefferson. Was this really what happened? We will never really know because, as Burr sings “No one else was in the Room where it happened.”  In contemplating the results Burr goes on to point out that

No one really knows how the game is played
The art of the trade
How the sausage gets made
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in
The room where it happens 

In his new book former National security advisor John Bolton draws back the curtain and show us The Room Where it Happened. It is a fascinating and rather depressing look at the inner workings of the Trump White House. When the book was first announced there was a giant clamor among people who had not read the book. Everyone thought it was going to be a tell all. Both Trump critics and Trump fans expected the book to be a salacious tell all full of dirty details. The Trump critics couldn’t wait for the expose. Finally, they would have the dirt that should have been available at the impeachment. Trump supporters prepared by declaring everything in the book that they had not read to be “fake news” and nothing but lies. The truth was actually far more mundane.

During the trial of Adolph Eichmann the philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the term “The banality of evil” to describe men like Eichmann who take part in a great evil, but make the evil sound almost tedious and boring. Bolton’s book could almost be subtitled the Banality of Incompetence. If you are looking for Donald Trump, Evil Genius then you will be very disappointed in this book. The Trump that you see here isn’t so much diabolical as simply incompetent and completely over his head. This should not be a big surprise to anyone who has observed Trump’s career over the years. The sheer boringness is in many ways the worst part of the book. Yes, there are some salacious stories here. Most of the book is not salacious, it’s just the tediousness of a White House that has no actual direction other than the whim of Donald Trump.

If you want a typical story from this book a good example would be the talks between Trump and Kim Jong Un. During their first meeting Trump mentioned his calling Kim “Rocket Man” and learned that Kim did not know the Elton John song. When Trump sent Mike Pompeo to engage in the next round of talks he autographed an Elton John Greatest Hits CD as a gift for Kim. During the phone debrief after Pompeo left the talks “Trump didn’t seem to realize Pompeo hadn’t actually seen Kim Jong Un, asking if Pompeo had handed over the Trump-autographed copy of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” CD, which Pompeo had not. Getting this CD to Kim remained a high priority for several months.”  This is a typical story.

Another good example is a little more dangerous. During a conflict with Turkey there was an impasse. The solution came from Mike Pence:  “the Vice President suggested Jared Kushner call Turkey’s Finance Minister, since they were both sons-in-law of their respective countries’ leaders. Really, what could go wrong? I briefed Pompeo and Mnuchin on this new “son-in-law channel,” and they both exploded, Mnuchin because the Turkish son-in-law was Finance Minister, his counterpart, and Pompeo because this was one more example of Kushner’s doing international negotiations he shouldn’t have been doing (along with the never-quite-ready Middle East peace plan). I always enjoyed bringing good news.” Pence suggesting that foreign policy be handled by members of “the family” is so typical of this administration that we almost forget that the US government is not some third world dictatorship or a mob family and this is not how things are supposed to work.

The Room Where It Happened is a memoir, it is not a book that has been researched by a third party. This means that it is very much written from Bolton’s perspective and with his own prejudices. His likes and dislikes come through. He was obviously not close to UN Ambassador Nikki Haley or to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. On the other hand, you see him working closely with John Kelly and Mike Pompeo. These personal feelings are quite apparent and they should be taken into account when reading the book. Bolton’s writing is not florid. It is very straight forward. In many ways you almost get the feeling that immediately after every meeting Bolton went straight to a quiet place and wrote down his notes. The book was little more than filling in a few blanks in the notes and framing the narratives. Trump people deny the unflattering portrait of the President in the pages, but the stories ring true. In the end we may never know what happened in these rooms. But the straight ahead look at Trump’s dysfunctional foreign policy shows us that a lot of damage control will be necessary in the years ahead.

I can’t mention a Hamilton song and then not give you a chance to listen.

Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz (Orphan X)

Release Date: January 29, 2019
Minotaur Books

Evan Smoak is the Nowhere Man. A man who moves in the shadows and helps people. He is also the former assassin Orphan X. In Out of the Dark he is back and ready for his most difficult and dangerous assignment yet. He is going to kill the President of the United States. When he was twelve years old Smoak was taken from a foster home and trained to become part of a deadly black operations force. The Orphan program produced the deadliest assassins and prepared them to serve their country. When Evan decided to leave they powers behind the program attempted to terminate him. In the previous books we learned that Evan wasn’t the only target of termination. All of the Orphans had been targeted. The man who issued the orders to terminate Orphan X was the President of the United States. All Evan knows is that the reasons are attached to his first mission. For some reason something attached to that mission is viewed as dangerous to the career of the current President. So Evan realizes that the only way to make himself safe is to kill the President before he is killed.

The Orphan X novels are enjoyable. They keep the pages turning. This newest book in the series is no exception. Gregg Hurwitz does an excellent job in each novel developing the character a little more each time. Evan Smoak is not just a two-dimensional cutout. He is a fascinating character who develops a little more each time we meet him. Smoak is flawed. His training leaves him unable to engage in normal human relationships. He doesn’t know how to navigate the world of dating. We feel Evan’s loneliness and we can’t help but hope that somehow he will end up with Mia and Peter. In some of the Orphan X novels the pacing has been slow. Not so in this novel. The pace is fast and the action is always moving. It is a great addition to the series. Definitely the best book to date. I look forward to more Orphan X books in the future.  

Odysseus Awakening by Evan Currie

Odysseus Awakening is the sixth novel in Evan Currie’s ongoing Odyssey One series. The story picks up a few months after the events in the prior novel. The Empire is now probing into the Priminae territory. Eric Weston is now the Commodore of a task force that has been assigned to monitor the actions of the Empire. 

In the meantime the Odysseus is experience some strange anomalies. There is a prankster on board causing trouble. Commodore Weston has to figure out how to deal with all of these issues while preparing to go up against the newest enemy. A chance encounter between a Priminae ship and the Imperial Fleet cascades into a space battle pits the Priminae and Terran forces against the Empire. 

That is about all there is to say about this particular book. The book is a nearly 300 page space battle. It is thrilling and fun. You keep turning the pages to see what happens next. Except for one fascinating point there really isn’t anything resembling plot or character development. Just non-stop space battle action. The book feels more like a transition between the previous book and the next one in the series. This is not uncommon for this series. It seems like the books alternate between setting up the story and an all-out battle. I have little doubt that the next book in the series will move the story along. The series is quite enjoyable and recommended.




           

John Marshall by Richard Brookhiser

John Marshall is one of the most consequential figures in the history of the United States, yet too little is known about him. In John Marshall : The Man Who Made The Supreme Court, journalist and author Richard Brookhiser seeks to help us know more about this man. In life Marshall was an unimposing character. Early in the book Brookhiser relates a story about Marshall at home in Richmond. He was dressed like any other rustic. A newcomer to town asked him to carry a turkey home from the market, not realizing until afterwards that he had used the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as a delivery man. Marshall was a man of humor.  Brookhiser shares another anecdote in the book. The Justices would board in the same house when the Court was in session and they ate together. They established a custom that they could only have wine if it was raining. “Marshall would ask ‘Brother Story’ [Justice Joseph Story] to look out the window and say what the weather was. If Story reported that the sun was shining, Marshall would answer, ‘our jurisdiction extends over so large a territory…that it must be raining somewhere.’” 

These anecdotes help to remind us that Marshall was an approachable and affable man. That did not make him weak. In his Introduction Brookhiser points out that “When Marshall died in 1835, he and the Court he led had rebuked two presidents, Congress, and a dozen states and laid down principles of law and politics that still apply.” That, of course, is why we know Marshall. He was the man who turned the Supreme Court into a powerful part of the United States government. Before Marshall the Supreme Court had little influence on the nation. After Marshall the influence was powerful.

The book is well written and easily approachable by the general reader. Brookhiser is a journalist by training and profession so he does not get into the weeds of trying to explain all of the minutiae behind the laws. Instead he focuses on the political implications of Marshall’s rulings. This is important because when Marshall established the idea of judicial oversight he inserted the Court into the politics of the new nation. Marshall was well aware that he was helping to guide the nation forward. He was a Revolutionary War veteran who had served on Washington’s staff.  As a young member of the Virginia Ratifying Convention he fought hard alongside James Madison for the ratification of the Constitution.  He was a successful attorney in private practice before moving into the government. He served under John Adams as Secretary of State before he became the third Chief Justice. Brookhiser takes us through his early years without succumbing that siren call of the historian: the rabbit trail. So many writers feel a need to set up a history by giving huge back stories or going off into minute detail about some side issue. Brookhiser deftly gives us what we need to understand the subject and keeps moving.

This is an excellent book and does justice to the subject. It also delivers the reader a well written, informative, and enjoyable experience.

2018 - A Year in Reading

Here is the completed reading list for 2018. It was a great year. 168 books 61,113 pages read.


The Lost Kings - Amy Licence
Dodge City - Tom Clavin
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain
Babbit - Sinclair Lewis
Last Stand at Saber River - Elmore Leonard
Matagorda - Louis L'Amour
Appaloosa - Robert B. Parker
Kingdom of Speech - Tom Wolfe
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
Fools and Mortals - Bernard Cornwell
Resolution - Robert B. Parker
Oedipus Plays - Sophocles
U. S. Marshals - Mike Earp
Hillbilly Elegy - J. D. Vance
A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare
Brimstone - Robert B. Parker
Sins of the Father - Lawrence Block
Time To Murder and Create - Lawrence Block
The Last Gunfight - Jeff Guinn
The Late Show - Michael Connelly
In The Midst of Death - Lawrence Block
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
Blue-Eyed Devil - Robert B. Parker
Iron Horse - Robert Knott
Bull River - Robert Knott
The Force - Don Winslow
The 39 Steps - John Buchan
Midnight at the Bright Idea Bookstore - Matthew J. Sullivan
12 Rules for Life - Jordan Peterson
Rooster Bar - John Grisham
Crisis of Responsibility - David Bahnsen
Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman
IQ - Joe Ide
Trigger Warning - Neil Gaiman
Righteous - Joe Ide
A View From The Cheap Seats - Neil Gaiman
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John LeCarre
All The Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
An Unlikely Trust - Gerard Helferich
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The Great Debate - Yuval Levin
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
My Antonia - Willa Cather
The Innocent - David Baldacci
The Hit - David Baldacci
Dynamite Road - Andrew Klavan
The Pirate Coast - Richard Zacks
Nowhere Man - Gregg Hurwitz
Shotgun Alley - Andrew Klavan
The Bloody Spur - Mickey Spillane
The Target - David Baldacci
Dangerous Women - Otto Penzler, ed.
Princess and the Goblin - George MacDonald
Camino Island - John Grisham
Black Echo - Michael Connelly
The Second World Wars - Victor Davis Hanson
Coolidge - Amity Shlaes
The Throne of Caesar - Steven Saylor
The Guilty - David Baldacci
Death of Caesar - Barry Strauss
Beautiful Ruins - Jess Walker
Memory Man - David Baldacci
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy O'Toole
March Violets - Philip Kerr
Black Ice - Michael Connelly
A Separate Peace - John Knowles
The Last Mile - David Baldacci
Unsub - Meg Gardiner
The Fix - David Baldacci
New York Dead - Stuart Woods
Hellfire Club - Jake Tapper
Concrete Blonde - Michael Connelly
Last Coyote - Michael Connelly
The Hunter - Richard Stark
The Escape Artist - Brad Meltzer
The Man With The Getaway Face - Richard Stark
Hellbent - Gregg Hurwitz
Dirt - Stuart Woods
Trunk Music - Michael Connelly
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
End Game - David Baldacci
Angels Flight - Michael Connelly
Dead In The Water - Stuart Woods
Discrimination and Disparities - Thomas Sowell
The Whistler - John Grisham
Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsythe
Swimming to Catalina - Stuart Woods
Macbeth - Jo Nesbo
Emma - Jane Austen
Dead Lock - Damien Boyd
Cuckoo’s Calling - Robert Galbraith
Ivanhoe - Walter Scott
Silkworm - Robert Galbraith
The Fallen - David Baldacci
Citizen Soldiers - Stephen Ambrose
Split Second - David Baldacci
Ayesha - H. Rider Haggard
Tevye The Dairyman - Sholem Aleichem
Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith
Hour Game - David Baldacci
A Darkness More Than Night - Michael Connelly
City of Bones - Michael Connelly
The Thief - Fuminori Nakamura
Lost Light - Michael Connelly
The Narrows - Michael Connelly
Spymaster - Brad Thor
The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly
The Closers - Michael Connelly
Simple Genius - David Baldacci
First Family - David Baldacci
Echo Park - Michael Connelly
Overlook - Michael Connelly
The Sixth Man - David Baldacci
Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly
King and Maxwell - David Baldacci
9 Dragons - Michael Connelly
The Reversal - Michael Connelly
The Drop - Michael Connelly
The Fifth Witness - Michael Connelly
The Black Box - Michael Connelly
Sex Matters - Mona Charen
Gods of Guilt - Michael Connelly
The Burning Room - Michael Connelly
The Crossing - Michael Connelly
The Wrong Side of Goodbye - Michael Connelly
Two Kinds of Truth - Michael Connelly
The Wrecking Crew - Kent Hartman
Suicide of the West - Jonah Goldberg
Price of Greatness - Jay Cost
All The King’s Men - Robert Penn Warren
The Other Woman - Daniel Silva
The Collected Stories - Eudora Welty
Depth of Winter - Craig Johnson
How In the Hell Did This Happen? - P. J. O'Rourke
There’s Something I Want You To Do - Charles Baxter
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
1984 - George Orwell
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring - JRR Tolkien
The Two Towers - JRR Tolkien
The Return of the King - JRR Tolkien
The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien
Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
The Devil In The White City - Erik Larson
Melting Pot or Civil War - Reihan Salam
Circe - Madeline Miller
Wrecked - Joe Ide
Mortal Republic - Edward Watts
Abraham Lincoln: The Prarie Years and the War Years - Carl Sandburg
Redeeming The Great Emancipator - Allen C. Guelzo
Lethal White - Robert Galbraith
The Ways of the World - Robert Goddard
The Corners of the Globe - Robert Goddard
The Ends of the Earth - Robert Goddard
Dark Sacred Night - Michael Connelly
Witch Elm - Tana French
Reconstruction - Allen C. Guelzo
The Outfit - Richard Stark
The Mourner - Richard Stark
Long Road To Mercy - David Baldacci
The Score - Richard Stark
The Jugger - Richard Stark
The Seventh - Richard Stark
Winter in Paradise - Elin Hilderbrand
The Reckoning - John Grisham
The Blood of Alexander - Tom Wilde
Odysseyus Awakening - Evan Currie
Odysseyus Ascendent - Evan Currie

Upcoming Reviews

Here is a look at the reviews that are coming up in the next few weeks:

John Marshall by Richard Brookhiser

The Reckoning by John Grisham

Odysseus Awakening by Evan Currie

Unexampled Courage by Richard Gergel

The Point of it All by Charles Krauthamemer

History of Russia and Eastern Europe

Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz

Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly

Havana Game by John Lutz

There is a little of everything here. Some history, some mystery, some thrillers, and some science fiction. I can't wait to share it all with you.

The Blood of Alexander by Tom Wilde

How to describe Blood of Alexander by Tom Wilde? It is a modern day, high tech, caper, thriller, adventure, spy, crime novel. It is not really any of those things. It is a mashup of them all. The novel opens with our hero, Jonathan Blake, visiting the site of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. These 6^thcentury statues were destroyed by the Taliban in early 2001. Our hero is here to purchase a stolen artifact from a local warlord and opium dealer. The scene is reminiscent of a classic James Bond opening. Complete with a double dealing arms dealer and a dramatic escape.

It turns out that our hero works for the Argo Foundation,  a private organization that is dedicated to the preservation of historical artifacts. It does so through means both legal and extralegal. Blake is the prime operative on the less than legal side. His job is to find stolen artifacts and steal them from the thieves. This is not an altogether altruistic organization. They turn around and either gain the insurance money, or sell the item to private donors who will preserve the artifacts.

Unfortunately for our hero the US government learns of his abilities and forces him to help them track down a mysterious character named Vanya. Vanya is a villain right out of the James Bond playbook. He has seemingly unlimited financial resources, minions, his own private island, yacht, and helipad. He has a deadly female right hand. All he wants is to take over the world using secrets that he will find in the tomb of Alexander the Great.

The story unfolds very much like a James Bond film. Yes, this is the third time that I’ve mentioned Bond because the pacing, hero, and villains are all reminiscent of a James Bond film. The hero is constantly getting into impossible situations and escaping through improbable means. After a while you find yourself wait for the next moment of betrayal or amazing escape. There is also a little of Clive Cussler here because you have the expert in artifacts along with the slightly strained re-writing of history.

Over all the book is very enjoyable. The pacing is fast and the characters are fun if not overly developed. If you love James Bond movies from the early Roger Moore era then I think that you will find a lot to enjoy in this novel. I certainly hope that Wilde will write more of these books in the future.

 Please remember that this site is provided at my own time and expense. Clicking on the links here to buy books helps me to do this.