The Captain and the Glory

November 1, 2019
A boorish ignoramus takes command of a noble vessel and heads full speed ahead into chaos. Yes, it's an allegory. Eggers has developed an affinity for fablelike tales that sound alarms about global economics (A Hologram for the King, 2012), technology (The Circle, 2013), and authoritarianism (The Parade, 2019). This shallow, needless Trump parable is the worst of them. That's mainly because the metaphorical veneer is so thin it all but renders the book unnecessary. When the commander of the ship Glory retires, a corrupt (not to mention "large and lumpy") kitsch merchant nominates himself for the job, enchanting some and horrifying others. (Among his cronies are "a patsy named Michael the Cohen" and a daughter he lusts after.) Once the "known moron" takes over the Glory, he delivers crazed messages to passengers on a whiteboard ("People who 'run' engines are your Enemies"), flings the ship's manual overboard, and then begins to do the same to anybody who crosses him. Immigrants who could assist are denied permission to board; minorities are cast out to cheers of "Drown the Brown." A Robert Mueller-esque "Sheriff of the Seas" proves an ineffectual counterweight; in time, the shallow, gullible captain falls under the sway of a Putin-ish "Pale One." (The captain "liked particularly the way he murdered his enemies, or ordered the murder of his enemies.") Soon, the Glory is pillaged for all it's worth. Anybody who needs the Trump administration explained to them in lightly fictionalized, fifth grade-primer prose is probably beyond Eggers' help. But there's little to appeal to anybody else: The deliberately simple, would-be comic style softens the dangers Eggers means to call out, and his concluding messages about how to right the ship are cloying. ("First, dignity.") An ill-advised take on "The Emperor's New Clothes" that's limp when it isn't condescending.

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November 1, 2019
The good ship Glory is home to thousands of passengers from around the planet who have lived harmoniously under a steady, now-retiring captain. Who should succeed him? One of many experienced and responsible crew members? Or a known swindler and compulsive liar sporting a yellow feather in his hair, who said pretty much anything that popped into his head?" This schemer ascends with the bemused connivance of his fellow thieves and con artists and the loud and gleeful support of folks who want to shake things up. But how will they feel once this ludicrously inept, calamitously venal, and amoral captain instigates mayhem and murder as Glory lurches from side to side? The boastful captain scribbles incoherent edicts on a whiteboard and obeys an unctuous voice oozing from a vent beneath his bed which steers him toward increasingly violent and nihilistic acts. With hilariously identifiable characters, chillingly brazen criminality, and burgeoning totalitarianism conveyed in a mesmerizing, fairy-tale cadence, Eggers, in concert with nimble and expressive illustrator Russell, presents an ingenious, incisive, grimly entrancing fable reflecting our nation's ever more alarming predicament.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)