Barack Obama unveils his presidential memoir, and Donald Trump tries to crush his critics

Reviews and recommendations from critic Ron Charles.

Barack Obama's first presidential memoir, “A Promised Land," will be released Nov. 17, 2020 (Crown). Former First Lady Michelle Obama is interviewed by Sarah Jessica Parker during an appearance for her best-selling memoir, "Becoming," in New York on Dec. 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The biggest book of the year hasn’t been published yet, and it won’t arrive for a while. President Obama will release his first presidential memoir, “A Promised Land,” on Nov. 17. That’s very late in the traditional publishing season — and just two weeks after Election Day. Given President Trump’s efforts to repress voting, degrade election procedures and cast doubt on his willingness to leave office even if he loses, Obama’s memoir might land in the middle of an unprecedented political crisis (op-ed). How that will affect shoppers — already spooked by the ongoing covid-19 pandemic — is anybody’s guess. (My guess: Brick-and-mortar bookstores will lose out to a massive online bookseller.) For its part, Crown, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, doesn’t appear worried. “A Promised Land” will retail for $45, a new record for presidential memoirs, and the first printing is reportedly 3 million copies — so many that a third of them will need to be printed in Germany and then shipped back to America.
“There’s no feeling like finishing a book, and I’m proud of this one,” Obama tweeted yesterday. “In ‘A Promised Land,’ I try to provide an honest accounting of my presidency, the forces we grapple with as a nation, and how we can heal our divisions and make democracy work for everybody.” Despite that allusion to the strife of the Trump era, there’s no indication that Obama will focus on critiquing his successor. A statement from Crown says “A Promised Land” moves from Obama’s earliest political aspirations to the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. A second volume is planned but has no current release date.
In 2017, the Obamas secured a gobsmacking book deal with Crown reportedly worth $65 million. Michelle’s “Becoming,” released in 2018, has sold more than 10 million copies, but it benefited from the first lady’s tireless promotion in front of sell-out crowds around the world (story). In the era of covid-19, such arena appearances will not be possible for Barack and his book.




Trump is hardly the first serial liar in the White House. But his deceptions are different.

President Trump is intensifying efforts to repress books that expose his malfeasance. A grand jury has reportedly issued a subpoena to Simon & Schuster, the publisher of “The Room Where It Happened,” a scathing memoir by former national security adviser John Bolton (story). Bolton’s literary agent has also reportedly been subpoenaed. This criminal investigation into Bolton’s use of allegedly classified information follows the president’s failed efforts to stop the book's publication (story). When it was finally released in June, “The Room Where It Happened” sold almost 800,000 copies in its first week.
Going after the publisher and agent is a Machiavellian strategy to suppress criticism from across the entire book industry. A criminal case — paired with the administration’s ongoing efforts to grab any profits from Bolton’s memoir — effectively warns other publishers and agents that working with well-informed authors who reveal the president's misconduct could entail extreme financial and legal risks.
PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel agrees. She tells me, “The reported issuance of subpoenas to a book publisher and literary representative signals an alarming escalation of the administration’s determination to intimidate and punish not just its critics, but those who help to bring their insights to the public.” Nossel acknowledges that the government has a legitimate interest in protecting classified information to ensure national security, but she notes that “the politicization of this White House’s approach to manuscript clearance has clouded over the credibility of that process.”
Capturing the gravity of the situation with his usual perspicacity, in June the president tweeted, “Washed up Creepster John Bolton is a lowlife who should be in jail.” See pro·jec·tion \ prə-ˈjek-shən \ noun.