Terrifying eye-witness account

A young journalist describes her long assignment to the Trump campaigns for nomination as Republican candidate then for election as President of the USA. As we all know, US elections are inefficient, costly, seemingly endlessly protracted media events, in which a small number of mega-rich contestants, who don’t need to have particularly strong political credentials (nor any experience, as it turns out) but have been born on US soil, insult each other ad nauseam via every possible method of communication for a very long time, before settling down to a duel à outrance between one rich person of a variable distance from the right of centre, and another, guaranteed to be far to the right of centre.
(OK, that’s not nuanced in terms of individuals, forgive me, that’s just the cynicism of the Old World, seen it all, at least since Romulus and Remus founded Rome.)
However, the Trump phenomenon is still, for many of us, even Old World stoics, beyond understanding.
For Katy Tur, ambitious young journalist, who followed his rise from “nothing” in terms of political regard, to being entrusted with the power to obliterate this planet in an instant, the campaign trail was a test of endurance, an assignment as war correspondent, which she does well to commit to history.
I found the shifts of time frame back and forward somewhat trying at times- just tell us in sequence, please, Katy, I wanted to say! - but was glad that she could sometimes make me laugh and that she could appreciate the beauty of Scotland, when Trump’s entourage went to play golf. (He seemed to try to take credit for creating the Scots landscape, but it’s unlikely the Almighty will Tweet an insulting putdown.)
Ms Tur was subjected to personal verbal abuse by Trump of a nature which would be unacceptable in a mature civilised democratic country, which eventually resulted in death threats, the need for security guards and protection, persecution on social media, and she has witnessed at close quarters the effects of Trump’s rhetoric (no that’s too flattering a word) his rants, on people who seemed quite human - except for Tshirts calling for extermination and sexual degradation of the Democratic candidate....!!
I first became aware of Trump’s existence on the far margins of my conscientiousness because of his marital shenanigans, chiefly notable for the obscene financial claims and “too much information” of a sexually explicit nature. Then he became the man who thought he could buy Scots law - he didn’t and couldn’t prevent community developments he thought interfered with the view from his golf courses.
On account of his aggressive, litigious stance against the Scottish people, he became persona non grata outside his little fiefdoms on the links; and that was before he crassly congratulated Scotland for voting for Brexit (which we had resoundingly rejected!)
It is still difficult to grasp that a man who has boasted of sexual assault on women, who has behaved repeatedly in public to degrade, dehumanise 52% of the human species who happen to be female, and encourages others to emulate him, not to mention other groups, has become a Messiah- not merely the current temporary head of state, but the incarceration of holy America.

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1 person found this helpful

L-O-V-E-D

Listened to on vacation and finished in two days. Extremely entertaining and gives true insight into an election that I still struggle to cope with.

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2 people found this helpful

A fascinating read

If you could sum up Unbelievable in three words, what would they be?

Reverting, informative,unbelievable

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Trumped!

Any additional comments?

Reporter Katie Tur followed the Trump campaign for the entire 2016 election and has an inside view of his campaign. You read about the long months that she and other political reporters were observers of what really happened in the Trump camp

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Very well written rollercoaster ride

I was gripped from the start and offers a good insight in the campaign and the media going ons behind it.


Very well written and very pleasant to listen too. Would highly recommend.

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2 people found this helpful

Could have been better

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes. The book gives a good insight into how political campaings are covered by the media. The story is a bit hard to follow, because Tur, the author makes these odd time jumps from election night to something that took place on day 200 of the campaing and straitght back to election night. That took me out of the story from time to time.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

When Tur is re-living the journalistic moments she does a good job, but when she goes and reads the more personal parts of the book then she kinda forgets that she is making an audiobook and just riffs. I get it it`s her own book, but I would say to her that despite the fact that it`s your own text try to read it with a little bit more control and calm.

Any additional comments?

I did not nead all that information about her FRENCH boyfriend.

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interesting, insightful and telling.

An incredible, albeit shockingly depressing story told in a lite and beautifully compelling way. I hope no one is able to ever give such a close account of his time as president simply because i dont hate a human being enough to want them to spend such time around the subject of this book. Katy Tur deserves our gratitude and sympathies for enduring such a task with so much gusto its actually enjoyable to hear or read about it.

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2 people found this helpful

Glorious writing about a stomach-turning campaign

Tur is honest, likeable, a stranger in a land getting stranger every day on Trump campaign. spellbinding.

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Still don't understand why!!

Excellent listen. Binged until it had finished as I did with Hillary's book. US politics so complicated for a Brit....

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3 people found this helpful

Excellent book

It sounds like being a reporter is a hard life! I enjoyed this book a lot.

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