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This Town

Two Parties and a Funeral--plus Plenty of Valet Parking!--in America's Gilded Capital
Oct 09, 2013calvoer rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
“This Town” reads as if you are sitting on the author’s shoulder as he gossips at the corner bar with colleagues. He’s chatty, irreverent, sarcastic, and brilliantly funny as he tosses around media-insider nicknames for the “media-politico industrial complex,” mostly without any particular malice. Outright phonies do not fare well. He charts the careers of dozens of players, but keeps coming back to the theme of Washington DC being a place where the same 500 people constantly repurpose themselves as they pursue bigger and bigger jackpots of cash. I think the book works best for readers who have followed the political scene closely on cable TV and the internet. I was unfamiliar with many of the less famous people he writes about and skipped some passages for lack of interest. All in all, though, a fascinating read.