This Town
Two Parties and a Funeral - Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking! - In America's Gilded Capital
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The #1 New York Times and Washington Post bestseller
Tim Russert is dead.
But the room was alive.
Big Ticket Washington Funerals can make such great networking opportunities. Power mourners keep stampeding down the red carpets of the Kennedy Center, handing out business cards, touching base. And there is no time to waste in a gold rush, even (or especially) at a solemn tribal event like this.
Washington—This Town—might be loathed from every corner of the nation, yet these are fun and busy days at this nexus of big politics, big money, big media, and big vanity. There are no Democrats and Republicans anymore in the nation’s capital, just millionaires. That is the grubby secret of the place in the twenty-first century. You will always have lunch in This Town again. No matter how many elections you lose, apologies you make, or scandals you endure.
In This Town, Mark Leibovich, chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, presents a blistering, stunning—and often hysterically funny—examination of our ruling class’s incestuous “media industrial complex.” Through his eyes, we discover how the funeral for a beloved newsman becomes the social event of the year. How political reporters are fetishized for their ability to get their names into the predawn e-mail sent out by the city’s most powerful and puzzled-over journalist. How a disgraced Hill aide can overcome ignominy and maybe emerge with a more potent “brand” than many elected members of Congress. And how an administration bent on “changing Washington” can be sucked into the ways of This Town with the same ease with which Tea Party insurgents can, once elected, settle into it like a warm bath.
Outrageous, fascinating, and destined to win Leibovich a whole host of, er, new friends, This Town is must reading, whether you’re inside the Beltway—or just trying to get there.
Customer Reviews
For This Town Followers
A great read if you track DC life and politics. A west coast transplant with 5 years now in DC, the book put a fun and detailed narrative to what I had been observing. Definitely read the epilogue...lol.
Great Fun!
I have been a DC junkie for over 40 years. I've been through all the phases from worshipful to complete cynic. This book made me laugh out loud. Its writing is of course informational but the use of sarcasm in just the right dose is terrific. The book's truth is(sadly) undeniable but I was better about to absorb the sober lesson of the book due to the author's talent for sharing the truth about the players in DC with such humor. Loved it. Will be giving it to others!
Try looking into the mirror
A pathetic book shameless hypercritical blather. Pages of feigned revelations of how narcissistic Washington is when this book is a pane to that culture. After 3 chapters I put down is vacuous self- important crap.
This guy should roast in hell with the sycophants and scum he writes about who lead and influence this country and made it into a celebrity burlesque show.
Total crap