One time a woman I was friends with, whom I’d dated earlier, was listing my various flaws as a boyfriend (we’re not friends anymore). And she told me that one of the many things wrong with me was that I saw life as a book.

Looking back, I think she was probably right. At the time, I was in the early, heady stages of trying to become a writer, when you view writers and their work as the ultimate truthtellers, far more important than priests or professors or politicians (I still pretty much feel this way). Books were filled with insight and accuracy and seemed to convey a universal humanity, and laid a path for me to follow in every facet of life. And so I saw life as a morality tale, a battle pitched between good and evil, and was often frustrated when the world or people in it didn’t react in ways I wanted.

I’m reminded of this because of a conversation friends and I were having a couple of weeks ago about Trump, and how he has consistently, amazingly escaped any consequences for his actions. And I told them my belief, which I still think is probably going to happen:

I imagine - as others suspect - that Trump is in a state of decline, and his apparent cognitive decline will soon overtly extend into his physical health. That said, he very well might live another two-hundred years, since he seems impervious to the natural laws of the universe (specifically, how they pertain to diet), but I wouldn’t be surprised - given the state of his health - if he passed away in months or a year.

“But he’ll never stand trial!” my friends said. “Or be punished.”

That’s correct, he won’t. I think, when Trump does pass away. he’ll do so having won everything he wanted.

He has persecuted his political opponents, terrorized cities and states that didn’t vote for him, formed a brutal secret police, vanquished DEI and rolled back whatever racial progress we’d made, destroyed our progress in science and statesmanship (probably irreparably), blanket pardoned the J6 insurrectionists so they can continue to get into murderous standoffs with law enforcement and molest children, and was even awarded the FIFA Peace Prize. Everything he wanted.

As a writer, you look for a story here with a satisfying ending. You want the antagonist to pay for his crimes, but this antagonist won’t. His story will end with him having accomplished everything he wanted. Will he be happy? No, but like most powerful and wealthy men, Trump is consistently, fantastically unhappy, and determined to inform everyone by his musings and actions how chronically depressed he truly is. He’ll die unhappy, but that’s his general state of being, and not enough of a resolution to satisfy the reader.

This dissatisfaction is because, I think, we’re looking at the story in the wrong way. These years aren’t the story of Trump (ultimately, he’ll be an uninteresting footnote, a symptom of America’s worst impulse and none of its best), but the people who shape our country have never been the heroes or villains of this book. What we’re living in, what we’re witnessing, is the story of Earth, and this chapter is America.

And America is a wonderful character to study, but ultimately a tragic one. The mortal flaws are there - borne of greed and violence, and unwilling to relinquish either of those things, to the point where they were enshrined into the constitution and our character. At times noble, swollen with potential and the power to change it’s fate, but ultimately unwilling. There is beauty in the way this country has adapted democracy from past societies…but any promising developments from our example are for another people, another country; we serve as rough draft for a future chapter to take and adapt and make better. We are not the ones who will save the world, or even our country. America’s land is too soaked in blood for future generations to find stable footing. This story is destined to end in tragedy but, at least, it’s a learning chapter for those in the future.

And so, as we see the decline, writers, it’s your job to what the writers before us did - to give what you can to the future. To write about the errors of greed and violence and selfishness and isolation and bigotry, to impart lessons that better societies can follow. To show that, no matter what hardships those future people will face, there were always those who knew better, and sang and fought and loved as the bullets flew and the land beneath our feet slowly gave way.

EA

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A little bit of writing news! I’m back in the Washington Post this weekend, with reviews of books by three of today’s most popular thriller writers: Freida McFadden, Laura Dave, and Alice Feeney. Check it out and tell me I did a good job, review my review.

I also have a new short story up in a publication I deeply admire, Reckon Review! This story is called “We’re in an Emergency” and it’s about violence and fantasy and Americans’ dangerous obsessions with both, and how they lead to our undoing. Also, there’s a car commercial thing happening in the middle of it, mainly because my wife needs a new car and it’s been on my mind.

It's giveaway time! The winner of a copy of any of the books I reviewed for the Post this weekend is:

pirates_____60@gmail.com

Congrats, and I'll send you an email soon!

My two most recent thrillers, No Home for Killers and When She Left, are each only $2.49 on Kindle through January 31! Grab a copy of either, or both (I don’t ask for much) and weird out the other books on your Kindle!

Thank you, I love you very much.