John Lithgow Writes Poems That Trump the Trump Moment

In the pages of The Guardian, Stuart Heritage writes about new literature inspired by this "Trump Moment," including a volume of poetry by John Lithgow. "Broadly speaking, there are three types of Donald Trump book," Heritage begins. "The first are the furious political deep dives ... written by respected journalists who find themselves at a loss to explain exactly how America did this to itself. The second are books written by – and presumably exclusively purchased by – members of the Trump family, which probably don’t deserve any more explanation than that. And then there is the third type." More, from there: 

The third type of Trump book is my favourite, because they are the satirical ones. They are the books that hoist Donald Trump up by his knickers and throw sausages at him. They are just as angry as the other books, but understand the cleansing power of mockery.

Right now we’re in the middle of a satirical Trump book boom. Stephen Colbert has written one, Whose Boat Is This Boat: Comments That Don’t Help in the Aftermath of a Hurricane. Trevor Noah has written one, The Donald J Trump Presidential Twitter Library. There are Donald Trump annuals. There are Donald Trump intelligence tests.

And now there is a Donald Trump poetry book. Dumpty is a collection written by John Lithgow, illustrated by the actor’s own beautiful drawings. In it, Stephen Miller is “The Little Man Who’s Not All There”. John Bolton finds himself the star of a Lewis Carroll-inspired verse entitled “The Walrus and the Kleptocrat”. My favourite poem, entitled “A Liberal’s Complaint”, goes after Fox News in the most delightful way imaginable; “Sean Hannity, Sean Hannity, You tidal wave of vanity! … Your brain is mashed bananity! You’re such a horse’s fannity!”

But Trump is the central figure here, presented as Dumpty, a lumbering, slow-witted oaf who trudges through the book...

Continue reading at The Guardian.