The Shelf of Trump

As a break from the unrelenting awfulness of the news, I am starting a reading project inspired by the failings and character flaws of Donald J Trump.

The idea came to me when I saw a mention somewhere of Robert Musil’s book The Man Without Qualities and instantly thought of Trump. What other books, I wondered, could be suggested to me by riffing off the absurdities of this most absurd of men? Since he’s everywhere, all the time, perhaps I could turn this to my advantage by resisting the horror and getting some good reading inspiration instead.

I was surprised by how many books came to mind. Here’s what I have so far:

• The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
• When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
• The Plague by Albert Camus
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
• The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• Blindness by José Saramago
• American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
• The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• White Noise by Don DeLillo
• An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I’m sure you can think of plenty more, so please contribute your ideas in the comments. I’d love to add to this list and make it a really solid resource for people who want to resist what Trump represents—the narrowing of discourse, the cultivation of enmity—and instead celebrate creativity and, that most important of reading gifts in these dark times, the capacity for empathy.

As I’m sure you can tell from the list above, I have no interest in reading about Trump himself. I’ve already done plenty of that, and there’s really not much to learn about a personality so basic and unevolved. Nor am I interested in books whose content mirrors our current predicament or anything like that.

Instead, the aim of the list is to proceed by association, using Trump’s vileness as an unlikely source of inspiration for discovering excellent books on completely different topics. And, of course, if you disagree with me and think Trump is a wonderful and gifted leader, please also contribute your ideas, perhaps inspired by all the things he knows better than anybody.

I plan to read these books gradually over the course of the next few months, years, or however long Trumpism lasts. If you’d like to play along, I’d love to have some company, so please do participate and leave a link to your posts about these books in the comments. My shelf was inspired by Marcie’s Shelf of Mexico project, so I encourage you to check out and participate in that one too.

Reading may seem like a very small, personal act of defiance, and it certainly won’t directly help the many victims of Trump’s policies. But there’s a reason why book banning is on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, why authoritarian regimes always hate and fear reading. It’s a way of engaging with the world on your own terms, thinking for yourself, emancipating yourself from the propaganda of the day. We need to do more of it, now more than ever.

The post The Shelf of Trump appeared first on Andrew Blackman.

On his blog A Writer’s Life, British novelist Andrew Blackman shares book reviews, insights into the writing process and the latest literary news, as well as listing short story contests with a total of more than $250,000 in prize money.