We reviewed the book mentioned in this here YouTube video. And we thought it was pretty good! Looks like we’re in good company:

BTW, you look marvelous today.

Love,

The Big Head DC All-Stars

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A scheming vice president of the United States, tired of being #2, sets a devious plan into motion to get rid of the president, making him look like a bumbling idiot. Congress is filled with creatures whose tiny minds stand in inverse proportion to their wide, spreading butts. Journalists are in bed with politicians, literally. Oh, and hookers are everywhere.

But enough about last week’s headlines.

Jamie Malanowski, the managing editor of Playboy, has written his second novel, The Coup (Doubleday), a satirical tour de force of Washington, in which he masterfully rips most of his plot points (see first paragraph) from the contemporary political palette (again, sadly, see first graph).

The names therein have been changed, we presume, to protect the not-so-innocent. But why? At many points during our reading of his 240-page tome, we wished, probably quite naively we admit, that Malanowski had done away with that perfunctory pleasantry. Tell your readers, Jamie, which politician we all know has been having an affair. Use his real name. Highlight the journalist who’s sexed and is still sexing her way to the top of the DC journo-world. Use her real name. Let it all hang out, and face the consequences. Get sued, Jamie. For the sake of humanity, get sued. Forget about selling a book via the traditional route. Burn bridges for the simple sake of telling the truth.

The book is good and will be an especially fun and funny read for those far removed from the insidious world of Beltway politics and journalism. Anyone with a conscience who still chooses to live within the milieu, however, will probably have to stop reading by page 11 to reconsider his or her life’s journey. No doubt, the masochists among us, like Ana Marie Cox, for instance, will get her kicks (and quips) without really examining, or explaining to her readers, why the book “manages to excavate an ugly and hilarious truth about Washington.” Explaining how, after all, is the easy part. The why, perhaps, could get her in trouble.

But Jamie went the traditional route, visiting DC late last week to attend a party hosted by The Washington Monthly in his honor. He saw old pals who’ve published his work; he met young journalists who gushed about Playboy’s articles (hoping all the while to see their bylines in its pages sooner rather than later); yes, he danced within our milieu for a few short hours.

And then he left — leaving us and others like us to ponder the whys of this specific universe, the hub that happens to lead the free world. After the party Big Head DC caught up with Malanowski in an effort to help you, dear readers, to piece together your own whys, whatever they may be: Read more…

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