Book Review: 'The Mueller Report'

First-time author Robert Mueller gives readers a riveting, yet sometimes dry, government thriller in the new novel The Mueller Report.

Cleverly packaged to look like an actual government document, the first volume of The Mueller Report focuses on a special counsel investigation into President Donald Trump to ascertain whether the president has conspired with Russia to win an election. The somewhat maddening answer to this question seems to be that the special counsel cannot prove conspiracy.

The second volume focuses on whether the president has obstructed justice and it is here that the real fireworks begin. The most vivid scene happens when Trump is informed that his firing of an FBI director will spur the investigation chronicled in Mueller’s novel. “Oh my God,” Trump says. “This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.” What follows is Trump trying to get White House attorney Don McGahn, in a meta flourish, to fire Mueller, the very author of the book. Several instances of obvious obstruction of justice follow.

Mueller makes the stylistic choice of presenting the book in a non-omniscient second person style, as if the information is being presented to a government team that we never see. However, it is odd that the author names the novel after himself, as it would more accurately be called The Trump Report.

Throughout, the author makes an impressive commitment to getting names and dates correct. The book does contain some typos and formatting inconsistencies but the assumption is that this is intentional to mimic the look of a government report that was produced quickly to be transmitted to the public and would thus contain mistakes. The book cites (real) court cases at every level to bolster its legal arguments. It also includes voluminous appendices and supporting documents. There is even the nice touch of frequently redacted passages, tantalizing to the reader.

However, one misstep in the publication is the inclusion of a four-page summary written by the attorney general. This summary is misleading and glosses over many of the key points of the main text. Reading only the summary and not the full Mueller Report would be like when George Costanza embarrassed himself at his book club after only watching the movie version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and recounting scenes that happened only in the movie and not the book. However, another interpretation of this summary is possible. Did Mueller intend to use the device of the unreliable narrator to make a critical point about how the government distorts information?

As interesting as the legal machinations are, we don’t get a lot of fully formed characters in the book. The character of Donald Trump does not significantly evolve throughout the story, starting as an under-informed, corrupt narcissist and ending pretty much the same way. It would have been better to have a more dynamic character as president.

Like David Foster Wallace, Mueller includes endless footnotes in his novel. Many of these are dry legal citations but many contain juicy information. For example, one footnote at the end of the book implies that even if the report does not indict the president, Congress does have the option of impeachment proceedings to hold the president accountable.

Tucked away at the end, does this footnote hint that a sequel is on its way? As interesting as The Mueller Report is for political nerds, one gets the sense that there are more fireworks to come.

Game of Thrones S8 E6: The Iron Throne

I’m sorry, what? “Bran the Broken, First of His Name, Lord of the Six Kingdoms”? Get outta town, Game of Thrones. Really, I had to laugh last night. Of course, the character I absolutely cannot stand becomes king. Of course he does. It’s not that I expect anyone to write something just for me, and I’m not outraged or anything; just kind of amused and vaguely annoyed.

There are several reasons why Bran would be a bad king. He doesn’t have many actual skills. He can warg into animals and see the past, but that won’t help his subjects, especially when they need so much practical help after the destruction of King’s Landing. He is completely charisma-free, and not the type of person who could get people to follow him. Sure, Bran is the repository of a lot of wisdom and stories, but he hasn’t shown much that he actually cares about people, which is a trait good leaders would have. For years, people physically dragged him to hell and back and he never showed much gratitude or that he was concerned about those people’s well-being.

Also, didn’t Bran get the Children of the Forest killed because of his carelessness? Or are we glossing over that?

Anyway, meet your new king, Westeros, and good luck with that. Samwell tried to invent democracy, which got him laughed almost out of town. Sansa was smart enough to declare Northern independence in an unintentionally hilarious way: “Love you, Bran; you’ll be a great king; we’re seceding.” It was very gratifying to see Sansa ascend the throne. She’s been through hell. She started as a starry-eyed kid with unrealistic ideas about the world and love and royalty, and emerged as a real leader. Sansa has probably had my favorite character arc of the series. All hail the Queen in the North.

I thought about it between episodes and maybe I misread Daenerys’s nuking of King’s Landing. I think there was more rationality in her destruction than I appreciated at first. I watched the footage again and she and Drogon go back and forth across the city, almost like mowing a lawn. That’s more methodical and not the act of someone who just “flipped out.” Maybe Daenerys just believed a little too much in her own cause and went too far.

“Everywhere she goes, evil men die, and we cheer her for it,” Tyrion says. When Daenerys goes too far, King’s Landing becomes a nightmare, with the creepy Targaryen flag draped over the rubble as snow and ash fall (and a beautiful shot of Drogon’s wings emerging from behind Dany). She will liberate the entire world from tyrants, a promise that she pointedly extends to Winterfell and the Stark rule. I really liked Emilia Clarke’s performance this episode.

In the end, like Dark Phoenix, maybe Daenerys has killed too many people to be allowed to live. Jon, the only one who can get close enough to kill his queen, stabs her before she can even sit in the Iron Throne. The staging was sort of anticlimactic, although I did like Drogon poking at his mother’s lifeless body. Then the whole Iron Throne is gone, melted down by Drogon. It’s all over.

I think season eight could have used more episodes to flesh out Dany’s turn into destruction and Bran’s worthiness of the throne. I write these reviews off the cuff first thing Monday mornings, without much time to delve deeper, so my thinking on this season may evolve, and I’m open to be convinced of other points of view.

It’s all over. Game of Thrones is a show that I had not expected to enjoy, and I resisted it for a few years. It turned out to be a sprawling world of adventure combined with politics and intrigue, and I’m so glad I took a chance on it.  

Day 16,436

Awaken to well-deserved sunlight after days of rain. Odd dreams still linger involving messages gone unreceived. Heat back on again, infuriating in mid-May, hopefully for just one more day. Head downstairs with sleep in eyes. Greet husband, already hard at work downstairs. Pet cats. Make coffee and breakfast and gradually feel more awake. Shower and dress and get ready for new day. Line up the tasks of the day: Articles to edit, authors to solicit, calendar to plan. Say good morning to son and take him to school. Head to work for another day.

A little grayer, a little fatter. Knees ache after standing for too long. Glasses now required for reading. Still, feel like a million dollars most days. Come home to full house. Can’t complain.

Game of Thrones S8 E5: The Bells

After years of teasing that the Night King and his undead army were inevitable, it turns out the real inevitability was the madness of Queen Daenerys Targaryen.

Victory was hers. Daenerys rides Drogon to destroy the Iron Fleet, and the Lannister army and Golden Company surrender to the forces of Jon Snow and the North. The bells ring out and the gates of King’s Landing open. And something in Daenerys snaps permanently. With a terrifying look on her face, she gives into her rage and pain and destroys the entire city, killing untold innocents.

This has been coming for a long time, at least as far back as when she crucified the slavers in Meereen. Some of this insanity and cruelty is probably innate to her character as one of the Targaryens, but some of it she was pushed into. After losing her two most trusted advisors, Daenerys feels backed into a corner, paranoid and betrayed by everyone on her side. Lacking the love of the people, she decides she will lean into the fear she inspires. Dany is a powerful, ruthless and compassionate woman, but she is also mentally ill and nobody does much to help her.

And it all ends in disaster. Everybody completely freaks out. Grey Worm furiously mows down everyone in his path. Jon stops his own men from killing innocents. Arya tries to help some women and children escape, only to see them turned to ashes by dragon fire. Everything crumbles completely and it’s horrifying.

Varys was right about Daenerys not being able it hold it together and he pays for it with his life. Tyrion betrays his friend, betting everything on the dragon queen, and risking execution by freeing Jaime in an emotional scene.

Arya and Sandor slip into King’s Landing to kill Cersei. (I had to laugh at them announcing this to some soldier, who was like, “I have to ask my supervisor.”) The Hound gives her some parting wisdom by telling her the quest for revenge on Cersei isn’t worth it, since she’ll die anyway and it will just make Arya more like him. Clegane Bowl becomes a standstill, with the Hound stabbing the Mountain in the eye to no avail. Finally, the brother who was so afraid of fire throws them both off a ledge to perish in the dragon fire below. This was more affecting than I expected because their relationship was not that of normal adversaries. It built instead on an abusive relationship.

Cersei’s smugness crumbles along with the Red Keep. Her last doomed moments were poetically staged, with everything falling apart around her, her sanctuary and her plans crashing down on a map of the Westeros that she once ruled. Jaime chooses to return to Cersei and they both die in one another’s arms as brother tells sister, “We’re all that matters.” Cersei had very little to do this season.

With Daenerys going mad, the Hound locked in battle with his brother and Jaime returning to Cersei to die with her, Game of Thrones is making a dark comment on how none of these characters can escape the cycles they were trapped in. Maybe this whole world can’t escape the cycle of conquerors and war it’s trapped in.

Where does the show go after this slaughter for the last episode? I’m not sure but I’ll bet that when Dany and Jon next see each other, the burning of King’s Landing will come up in conversation.

Game of Thrones S8 E4: The Last of the Starks

Tyrion almost convinced Cersei to back off. Invoking the one positive trait of his sister, her love for her (dead) children, he got the queen to wobble a bit, a crack showing in her smirking façade.

But no. A moment later, Cersei steels herself and Missandei loses her head. The scene is an obvious echo of Ned’s beheading. Both times, they told you what would happen if someone didn’t comply with an order, and it happened, and heads rolled. I feel bad for Missandei. She finally escapes slavery, learns 19 languages, and with an easy life at the beach with Grey Worm close enough to taste, she goes down. All the foreshadowing of the death of one of them before the Battle of Winterfell was accurate, just a little early. It was painful to see one of the show’s nicest characters die, and the implications of killing her are unfortunate.

Losing two dragons and two advisors, and realizing her nephew/lover has a better claim on the throne than she, Daenerys all but audibly snaps this episode. Like, they could have added a “snap” sound effect and had her eye start to twitch. She holds back from ordering the remaining dragon to BBQ Cersei, even after Missandei gives her blessing with her last word “Dracarys,” but she’s only barely hanging onto self-control. Who could blame her for feeling the pressure? She held back earlier from BBQing Euron’s fleet when it was clear he had a weapon that could destroy a dragon.

Game of Thrones has for some time been building to the idea that Daenerys may become a Mad Queen after all. I think this is a compelling story idea. Varys lays it out as clearly for her as anyone ever has: Don’t let your destiny mislead you into destroying the people you want to save. Cersei works this dynamic by placing the people of King’s Landing as human shields, so even if Dany takes the city, she’d do it by killing untold numbers of people and would lose the trust of her new subjects.

It was a surprise to see Bronn pop up and make the clever move of negotiating a bigger salary from the Lannister boys, ensuring he’ll be Lord of Highgarden. He’s smarter than a lot of the people contending for the Iron Throne. Gendry also gets his prize, becoming Lord of Storm’s End, a move that on Dany’s part is as much about rewarding Gendry as removing him as a legitimate claimant to the Iron Throne while gaining an ally in one of the Seven Kingdoms. (At the same time, this move could backfire, since she legitimized him as a Baratheon, giving him a stronger claim to the throne, although, realistically, I don’t think Gendry doesn’t have a power base.) However, Gendry misses out on getting a wife, as Arya makes what I think is the right move for her character in turning him down. Jaime does get a non-incestuous love interest in Brienne (it was fun seeing them play drinking games and I’m glad Brienne got a piece of happiness). But it doesn’t last, as he leaves her in (out-of-character) tears to go kill Cersei. I have long thought it would be the most poetic, Shakespearean option for one twin to kill the other.

Hilariously, none of the Starks can keep their mouth shut that Jon is Aegon Targaryen. This sets up a fascinating conversation between Varys and Tyrion, who flirt with the idea of a coup to install Jon instead of Daenerys. This is the part of Game of Thrones I like: Thoughtful debates on leadership, succession and politics. I don’t think Jon’s a great choice for leader. The audience likes him and all that but he’s failed in several battles, and his followers did actually mutiny and murder him, which doesn’t bode well for him assuming a throne he doesn’t even want.

Daenerys could go Mad Queen and set everything on fire, and that would be an interesting end to the story. At this point, I’m rooting for her to topple Cersei and keep her shit together as the queen.