Event the National Book festival . Nice. Nice to see that. Welcome back. And how many of you have attended one of these dash book festival presents . Good, keep coming back. We like you. Thank you so much. [laughing] welcome to the library of congresses National Book festival presents, a vibrant new series of programs inspired by the National Book festival and t to bring you into the heart of this historic, dynamic institution, the library of congress, joe national library. Library. This is a brandnew effort through which we helped to spark conversations, engage, inspire and entertain you with some of the most diverse, provocative, and notable writers of the day. In every program that we put before you, save from the childrens writer to a conversation with the haitianamerican one of the literary novelist, to the program you have come to hear tonight, we need to connect the works of living writers to a larger history, a deeper understanding. We delight in making those connections for yo
How many of you are at the library for the first time tonight . While, double welcome to you. How many of you attended the library of Congress Flagship presents the National Book festival . Nice. Nice to see that. Welcome back. How many of you have attended one of these National Book festival presents . Good, keep coming back. We like you. Thank you so much. Welcome to the library of congress National Book festival presents, a vibrant new series of programs inspired by the National Book festival and meant to bring you into the heart of this historic dynamic institutions, the library of congress, your library. This is a brandnew effort to which we hope to spark conversation and engage and inspire and entertain you with some of the most diverse, provocative and notable writers of the day. In every program that we put before you say from the childrens writer, dave pelkey, to a conversation with the haitianamerican wonderful literary novelist [inaudible] to the program you come to hear ton
About this wonderful book you have written. I want to start with you by the beginning and end of the book. You have two different encounters with donald trump or the first is when you are a young cub reporter and the lasses when youre obviously a big white house hotshot reporter. But described this to different encounters with trump i think that is kind of the ark of the book. It goes between those two. s really incredible book ends. The first was i was in my 20s, working for the New York Post. As actually assigned to city hull there was a guy there a mayor at that time who would just become mayor called rudy giuliani. [laughter] somebody who we might know. Smack yes. There is this absolutely unbelievable story that had gripped new york city at the moment. Its not story is particularly interested as working for the New York Post and its all my editors cared about. News had just broken that Michael Jackson, the king of pop had just married lisa marie presley, Elvis Presleys daughter. Th
Anyway, congratulations on what is a terrific book. Im so glad youve returned this. We have written so many books and articles about the dissidents and opposition and that is like maybe 10 of the population we dont hear a lot of people in between make do and get by. The idea came to me slowly as i found i wasnt exactly able to capture what i was seeing and feeling and maybe because i wasnt understanding the picture myself when i arrived with that dichotomy that you mentioned looking for the oppressors. With stalin or neo and that makes for good journalism. With time i realized i wasnt doing justice to the country and there was a lot of left out of the story. But i didnt totally have the framework if it wasnt this battle between the position debate co opposition. We can talk about this a bit and it takes up most of the prologue of the book was the way of making sense of what was going on and helping me understand the way that most people the dynamics that guide people are ultimately so
You are young reporter and then a big hotshot reporter but talk about the two different encounters that is the arc of the book. It is an incredible book and i was in my twenties working for the New York Post there is a mayor named Rudy Giuliani at the time. And there was this is absolutely unbelievable story that gripped new york city at that particular moment. Not one that i was interested in but i was working for the post and all my editors cared about. Because the news had just broken Michael Jackson, the king of pop had just married lisa marie presley, Elvis Presleys daughter. They were married in secret, they had not been seen in public yet, and they were staying at trump tower. So in this news broke out, all the paparazzi, everybody the curiosity seekers. And this is the new york pos post. Michael jackson is at his absolute peak of popularity at this moment. So the crowd around trump tower became so intense they put a police corridor or around the block people had to cross the st