Lars Svendsen, Stupid Idiots

 

- Easily the most pointless book I’ve ever read. 

- All sensible people know what a ‘stupid idiot’ is. We don’t need ancient and modern philosophers to enlighten us. 

- And we all know Trump is a stupid idiot.

Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, Regime Change.

- Two very well respected journalists employed as White House correspondents by The New York Times have written a 'fly on the wall' account of the first fifteen months of Trump's 2024-2028 presidency. It's by far the best political book I've ever read - and I've read a lot of them. It's detailed and utterly absorbing. 

- It's a long 464 page immersion in the character and dynamics of Trump's regime. As readers we have a seat at every formal and informal meeting in the White House, and we're party to the debates, arguments and discussions of Trump's key players and their staff. How on earth Haberman and Swan got all these details is beyond me. There were obviously loads of leaks all the time. Their perspective is objective and descriptive and neither left wing nor right. (Though Trump has condemned the book as 'radical left'!). 

- The key players are by now well known to all of us: Stephen Miller, Elon Musk, Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff, Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, Pete Hegseth, Laura Loomer, Mike Waltz, Karoline Leavitt, J. D. Vance, Mike Johnson, Jerome Powell, Kash Patel, Jared Kushner and others. Their contributions and opinions are all covered in detail. And their frequent disagreements (the word 'fucking' is common). 

- As well the regular Trump and Netanyahu meetings are described in detail. Netanyahu's expert sucking up to Trump is fascinating. 

- Trump loves power. He continually interferes to exercise it. His normal work day is described, and the issues that have become problematic are delved into - the Epstein Files, Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve, Nvidia and AI, the aggressive use of the military in US cities, Venezuela and Maduro's capture and imprisonment, cryptocurrency, Trump's renaming of buildings and landmarks, the killing of innocent civilians by ICE agents, Trump's belief that he is the greatest President in US history, and others. 

- Covered in depth are the Iran ceasefire negotiations with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff that created the 'Board of Peace', which as we now know was worse than useless. And Netanyahu’s visit to the White House in March this year to persuade Trump to go to war. Which he did. 

- The Vance/Rubio contest for the 2028 election is also described. Trump remains 'neutral', though there's no doubt that Rubio is smarter and more than likely to get Trump's support. 

-The book is also very well written and superbly edited. An absolute must-read.

Steve MinOn, First Name Second Name

- This wonderful and challenging novel is shortlisted for the 2026 Miles Franklin Award. The winner will be announced in August. I've read most of the nominees and can confidently predict this has a real chance of winning. (Along with Randa Abdel-Fattah's amazing Discipline. Both published by the deplorable UQP. And both written by immigrants!)

- Steve MinOn's surname, with the capital O in the middle, reflects the main character's surname in the book. It's two Chinese first names meshed together because this is Australia mate! In gold rush 1878 Pan Bo Lin married an Irish woman who named him Mr Pan Bolin. Thus the origin of the Bolin family over generations. 

- We're in rural Queensland. The Aussie males are blokey and racist, and fatherhood is challenging. And the women and wives are forced to obey. 

- The novel has a fantasy element called Jiangshi, a state in which a dead person is also mysteriously alive and walks around observing and commenting. The main character Stephen lives in today's world as he is Pan's great grandson. Now dead, experiencing his 'interminable trek', he reflects on the abject racism he suffered painfully throughout his life. He was also gay, something foreign to his family, and was forced to keep it secret, particularly from his conservative father, Willie, who liked the newly elected Pauline Hanson, even agreeing with her that ‘we are in danger of being swamped by Asians’! 

- Throughout the book as we learn of the lives of the Bolin family and their partners and kids, we are immersed in Queensland towns like Innisfail and Proserpine, and details of the politics of the times - Joh Bjelke-Petersen and Wayne Goss for example. The generational relationships are complex as there are so many brothers and sisters with children and grandchildren. (Thank god there is a dramatis personae at the beginning of the book which clarifies who's who). Despite the Bolin's Chinese heritage they all married white people. As Stephen's nephew asks at one point: 'Every marriage in a hundred years has been to someone of European or Anglo descent. Caucasian. Can you not see it? Nobody married anyone Chinese. Not even Asian, or First Nations of Pasifika or African, or...how can that be a coincidence?'  

- As the decades pass families and relationships change. Steven goes to London where he finds it hard to get work and hard to adjust. Edinburgh, however, his mother’s former home, is far more comfortable. He also gets captured by the gay scene and spends most nights partying, drinking and indulging in casual sex. While there his father is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He's reluctant to come home and attend the funeral. 

-Steve MinonOn has written an intriguing novel that explores so many dimensions of the complex Australian character. The prose is lucid and readable, and his observations deep and real. A novel that will stay with you for a long time.