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Rainer Link
Author
Tales of Political Infidels Trump’s Lickspittles and Lackeys
Rainer Link, author
Let pundits and historians argue over the facts of the Trump presidency. This novel confronts the absurd reality of that era with whimsy, street theater, poetry, and a band of merry characters eager to expose the rampant fraudulence. With the help of his friend the Whistler (undercover as a chef in the White House), the novel’s narrator concocts audacious accounts that mock Trump and his lackeys. Trump becomes a medieval quack when he touts useless cures for the coronavirus; he seeks to buy a portion of North Korea intending to develop a Trump resort; and he becomes a healer who miraculously cures cripples during his Bible photo-op, after gassing innocent protestors. The narrator reports how those submissive to Trump (caricatured as Poodles) are tethered to him. Described as cold-blooded political infidels, they feign religiosity and love of country, yet believe in nothing—not God, not America, not right or wrong. Seeking power under the guise of Trump, they ridicule those who fall for their deceptions. Tales of Political Infidels is compelling. The narrator’s tales are nests made of various debris, yet embedded within each nest is an egg of truth camouflaged by satire and exaggeration.
Reviews
Link’s playful, formally inventive burlesque of the administration of the 45th president of the United States doesn’t aspire to subtlety—“lackeys” and “lickspittles” make the subtitle for a reason. Just a couple pages in, after a fabulist introduction concerned with the power of storytelling itself, Link imagines Trump officials in a bacchanalia of human/poodle sex, inspired by Boccacio’s rendering of Dante’s Inferno, and promises that “You, my friend, and I, your narrator, will collaborate to brazenly add the grotesque image of Trump at the bottom of this hell.” So, readers, consider yourself warned: Tales of Political Infidels has been crafted to offend, drawing a clear line from 21st century politics to the scatological satire of Rabelais, Petronius, and Philip Roth’s Our Gang.

Its disgust is outraged, its outrages disgusted, especially as the plague descends. It's also written with grace and wit, at times even skirting toward apologia for its more outré inventions. Not that it’s only the fictional stuff that’s outlandish. At first, it seems ludicrous when a whistleblower—The Whistler—describes a meeting in which the president and his “Poodles” attempt to find someone, anyone, to assassinate to knock impeachment headlines out of the news. But then team chooses to target Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian major general actually killed in a January 2020 drone strike. Link also engages in Chaucerian play, with “The Copper’s Tale” detailing a police officer’s experience of departmental corruption.

Finding inspiration in great ribald literature proves effective both in parodying the administration, connecting it to the brazen transgressions writers have always lampooned, while also reminding readers that nothing much has changed in humanity since the age of Molière. The joking here at times is mean—early on, the Narrator declares that “right wingers don’t read”—and the wildness of Link’s imaginings might not be enough to win over sympathetic readers who, in the moment, have simply read enough about Trump.

Takeaway: A proudly outrageous satire of the Trump administration, with classical roots.

Great for fans of: Christopher Buckley’s Make Russia Great Again, Mark Doten’s Trump Sky Alpha.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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