She REALLY Doesn't Like Her Uncle Donald

At TBG's urging, I bought Too Much and Never Enough - How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man last week, and downloaded it to the Kindle when it was released yeaterday.  I read it today.  It's all you think it is, and more, with a dash of vitriol that's understandable and vaguely unsettling.

There's not a happy camper in the bunch.

The subtitle tells the story.  Her grandfather, her grandmother, her uncles and her aunts.... every one of them and their spouses have their secrets laid bare.  The money held them together the way G'ma used to describe certain relatives on Daddooooo's side: sure, they'll give it to you.... but there are always strings attached.

Humiliation, belittlement, denigration - Mary Trump describes a Dickensian childhood surrounded by those who thought they were better than she, than the rubes, than everyone except Donald and Fred.  For Fred, she has no excuses.  For Donald, she uses her PhD in psychology to provide a credible description of the psychological damage and the coping skills that evolved from growing up in such a dysfunctional family.  

The first half of the book is a deep dive into the family, as seen from the perspective of a cousin who was almost-inside.  The bruises she carries from her father's sad life pervade the book; at times, I had to put it down and take a breath.  

The second half of the book, dealing with Atlantic City and beyond, is more vicious. At times, the paragraphs fall over one another, a catalog of misbehaviors, stunning in their careless disregard for the rules, any rules.

It's a fast and easy and breezy read.  It explains, perhaps, some of the why's.  I don't think it will change anyone's mind about anything, but it's an interesting peek behind the curtain.  I'll leave you with this, from Chapter 9: The Art of the Bailout.

As usual, the lesson Donald learned was the one that supported his preexisting assumption: no matter what happens, no matter how much damage he leaves in his wake, he will be okay. Knowing ahead of time that you're going to be bailed out if you fail renders the narrative leading up to that moment meaningless. Claim that a failure is a tremendous victory, and the shameless grandiosity will retro-actively make it so. That guarnateed that Donald would never change, even if he were capable of changing, because he simply didn't need to.  It also guaranteed a cascade pf increasingly consequential failures that would ultimately render all of us collateral damage.