"We were having lunch at Bono's house."
August 19, 2022 7:34 AM   Subscribe

Jared Kushner's 'Breaking History' (NYT, archive.org) is a soulless and very selective memoir

Panned (The Hill) with a scathing (Yahoo), brutal (The Independent), savage (Vanity Fair) review (dogshit), here are the meanest (LitHub) lines.
posted by box (69 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo.
posted by Nelson at 7:46 AM on August 19, 2022 [26 favorites]


Yeah, the cat/dog thing is the money quote, but...is that something that actually happens?
posted by How the runs scored at 7:54 AM on August 19, 2022


Ha - I just read that review yesterday and thought about making a post about it here (holy cow, that list of backhanded praises for him!), but thought it might have been too petty.

So thanks for framing it into a wider and fuller context. Like the Flavortown takedown, but with more cat licking a dog’s eye goo.
posted by Mchelly at 8:01 AM on August 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


is that something that actually happens?

In my experience it would happen the other way around.
posted by aught at 8:06 AM on August 19, 2022 [6 favorites]


SCREEN FADES TO BLACK

JARED KUSHNER WAS CONVICTED ON 330 MILLION COUNTS OF ATTEMPTED MURDER DUE TO HIS HANDLING OF COVID LOGISTICS

HE WAS SENTENCED TO READ HIS OWN BOOK UNTIL THE END OF TIME
posted by adept256 at 8:12 AM on August 19, 2022 [45 favorites]


The Republican Party will probably buy 100,000 copies, so he's not worried about bad reviews.
posted by Bee'sWing at 8:18 AM on August 19, 2022 [9 favorites]


So, Bono, Geldof and Billy Joel all ok with serving as hosts, entertainment and lapdogs for those who've made a mint undermining democracy, journalism, truth, etc.?
posted by the sobsister at 8:23 AM on August 19, 2022 [46 favorites]


The LitHub link is the same as the Independent link.

I read the NYTimes review yesterday, and was trying to articulate to my partner why one of the things I found disturbing was the idea of Kushner being on Rupert Murdoch's yacht with Billy Joel, Bob Geldorf, and Bono. It reminded me of when Ellen Degeneres was being talked about as being crappy to employees, and I read something, and saw pictures, about her being good friends with George Bush.

It's like, when you reach a certain level of wealth or celebrity status, that becomes your most salient feature, and differences in social and political outlook become subsumed to being at those parties and on those yachts and at those basketball games. I can't quite sort out why this bothers me, except that it drives home the idea that rich people, whether they come from family money or entertainment or Silicon Valley, see themselves as more connected to each other than to any other communities they might be, or might have been, part of.

It shouldn't surprise me, and it doesn't. But it gets under my skin.

I know a number of people who come from wealthy families, who don't have to work because they are able to support themselves with their share of the family fortune. Ironically, I know these people because I'm a Quaker, and East Coast Quakers are rife with old money. They don't tend to talk about it much, and in at least a couple of cases, I knew people for years before I figured it out. In at least one case, I was like, "Yeah, why did I never notice that so-and-so has no visible means of support?" But these people live relatively modestly, not out of line with the many, many Quakers who don't come from wealth but are upper-middle-class, highly educated professionals and academics.

One friendly acquaintance in particular I knew came from wealth, and I knew he traveled a lot, but he seemed pretty down-to-earth when I spent time with him at Quaker gatherings and retreats. It really took me aback a couple of years ago when a mutual friend casually mentioned that he owns a penthouse apartment in a luxury high-rise in a big city, and that his travel is mostly on his yacht. I'm not sure how you can be a Quaker with a penthouse apartment and a yacht, especially since it seems so clear that rich peoples' priorities seem to be other rich people. I mean, when this friend is not hanging out with Quakers, who is he hanging out with? Some Billy Joel/Jared Kushner analogue? Does nothing else matter when you have money in common?

I guess my point is, Eat the Rich.
posted by Well I never at 8:25 AM on August 19, 2022 [117 favorites]


Maybe they still haven't found what they're looking for? They didn't know it was Christmas? They love Jared just the way he is?
posted by box at 8:25 AM on August 19, 2022 [55 favorites]


My only objection to the reviews is that they describe Kushner as "soulless", surely one of the most unnecessary descriptors ever; he would seem to repel anything resembling a soul--Pazuzu couldn't possess him. Like, if Thanos took him to the planet Vormir and offer him in exchange for the Soul Stone, the Red Skull would just laugh and go, "Really, dude? I mean, seriously?"

So, Bono, Geldof and Billy Joel all ok with serving as hosts, entertainment and lapdogs for those who've made a mint undermining democracy, journalism, truth, etc.?

I think that that yacht sailed a while ago.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:25 AM on August 19, 2022 [8 favorites]


So, Bono, Geldof and Billy Joel all ok with serving as hosts, entertainment and lapdogs for those who've made a mint undermining democracy, journalism, truth, etc.?

the sobsister said what I was trying to say much more succinctly and effectively.
posted by Well I never at 8:26 AM on August 19, 2022


Bono was there because these are his kind of people, Joel was there for the money, Geldof was there for the free food and booze.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 8:39 AM on August 19, 2022 [5 favorites]


the idea that rich people, whether they come from family money or entertainment or Silicon Valley, see themselves as more connected to each other than to any other communities they might be, or might have been, part of.

It's a big club, and we ain't in it
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:47 AM on August 19, 2022 [20 favorites]


His kind of people get off on being insulted by the left; the meaner we are, the more they like it. So, you know, go ahead and call him a runny shit, call his book unfit even as emergency loo roll; they'll put those quotes on the cover of the next edition and sell a hundred thousand more.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:50 AM on August 19, 2022 [8 favorites]


And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality
posted by bondcliff at 8:58 AM on August 19, 2022 [10 favorites]


I didn't know he had a memoir out, and wasn't intending to engage until I started reading the review, which is delicious. God bless these reviewers for getting a chance to leak their poison, and remind me that there are so many things worse than being a flop. Like. You could repeatedly place yourself in positions of power for which you are incapable of serving. And then you could have a book published attempting to fluff your nonexistent accomplishments, and have the book justly received with acid ridicule.

I'm not convinced MAGA people are particularly excited about Jared Kushner. I guess the mean reviews could get them on side, but even that would be a pro forma thing. As the NYT reviewer says, "he's a pair of dimples without a demographic."

Jared Kushner memoirs, lmao.
posted by grandiloquiet at 8:58 AM on August 19, 2022 [4 favorites]


Kushner reminds me of a lizard, but without the warmth and personality. He has the presence of a fake plant. If I were going to manufacture store mannequins, I’d just encase him in carbonite and call it a day.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 9:17 AM on August 19, 2022 [13 favorites]


I'm not sure how you can be a Quaker with a penthouse apartment and a yacht, especially since it seems so clear that rich peoples' priorities seem to be other rich people

Well see, when jesus said to give up all your possessions and follow me, and when he said it's easier to pass through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter heaven, and when he told satan to fuck off when satan promised him all the kingdoms of the world, and when he said blessed are you who are poor, and woe to you who are rich, and woe to you who are well-fed, and when he said the deceitfulness of riches chokes the Word, and when he said no one can serve both god and mammon, and when he said this is how it will be for whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward god, and when he said god had anointed him to preach the gospel to the poor, and when he said many that are first shall be last, and when he said do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, and when he knocked over the money changers' tables and said you have made my house a den of thieves, what you need to understand is that the bible is just so, so rich with metaphor and figurative language. jesus was just chockablock with deeply poetic, figurative metaphors
posted by cubeb at 9:18 AM on August 19, 2022 [131 favorites]


The Trump campaign has previously demonstrated they have no problem whatsoever paying for things like books, hotel rooms, etc., as a money-laundering scheme. They'd consider it high comedy to buy enough copies of this turkey to put it at the top of the NYT best-sellers list, then rub the reviewer's face in it.

I'm sure the negative reviews are useful as a pretext for stiffing the ghostwriter, something else they delight in doing.

Apparently they can't buy decent legal representation at any price, however.

I'm making popcorn.
posted by panglos at 9:20 AM on August 19, 2022 [6 favorites]


The reviews don’t matter. He already got a lot of money for writing it, and he can buy enough copies to put it on the bestseller list.
posted by betweenthebars at 9:25 AM on August 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


It's not like he needs the money anyhow. He's got the kind of wealth Cheeto Benito can only dream of. This book is 100% about burnishing his reputation…or something.
posted by adamrice at 9:33 AM on August 19, 2022 [4 favorites]


My only objection to the reviews is that they describe Kushner as "soulless", surely one of the most unnecessary descriptors ever

I expect it's as close as they're allowed to writing "Jared Kushner is an objectively terrible, awful, no-good, very bad person."
posted by Gelatin at 9:34 AM on August 19, 2022 [3 favorites]


Well he got a big payday from the bonesaw murderer. I seem to remember something about technology transfer of nuclear intelligence which horrified security experts at the time. Wouldn't it be weird if there was a paper trail in a shed by the pool?
posted by adept256 at 9:38 AM on August 19, 2022 [3 favorites]


I was on the fence about the guy, but he admitted to being a Mets fan. Fuck that dude.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:41 AM on August 19, 2022 [6 favorites]


Maybe they still haven't found what they're looking for? They didn't know it was Christmas? They love Jared just the way he is?

You may be right
He may be crazy
But it just may be a
Looooooooooooooonnnnaaaaatic
We're lookin' for
posted by chavenet at 10:00 AM on August 19, 2022 [4 favorites]


Jared Kushner is proof that Stepford husbands are still in the alpha release.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:02 AM on August 19, 2022 [13 favorites]


Billy Joel was just doing a little primary research. We Didn't Start the Fire 2 is going to be epic!
posted by AndrewStephens at 10:02 AM on August 19, 2022 [2 favorites]


So if they, the proverbial “they,” buy a buttload of books to get it on the bestseller list, where do all those copies end up? Personally, I don’t think they will be shredded and used as home insulation, due to the high quantity of rank BS in the book.
posted by njohnson23 at 10:03 AM on August 19, 2022


Since he likes giving away dual-use technology so much, maybe the pages are double-quilted.
posted by adept256 at 10:07 AM on August 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


So, Bono, Geldof and Billy Joel all ok with serving as hosts, entertainment and lapdogs for those who've made a mint undermining democracy, journalism, truth, etc.?

Or perhaps they all subscribe to "What happens in Eze stays in Eze" and simply never supposed Jared would name drop them. Fools.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 10:21 AM on August 19, 2022 [3 favorites]


So if they, the proverbial “they,” buy a buttload of books to get it on the bestseller list, where do all those copies end up?

Seriously! If the system is so easily manipulated, let's at least not be wasteful. You should get an additional "sale" for every $20 you donate to the ALA or your local library system. Cheaters get to cheat, and they even get a tax break. No one has to print, transport, and dispose of these books. And libraries get money, which they'll spend (in part) on new books and a subscription to the NYT. Everyone wins!
posted by Garm at 10:35 AM on August 19, 2022


I haven't really recovered from that period in the 90s when Bono was all buddy buddy with Jesse Helms (I get the Aids partnership thing, but like, Jesse Helms, y'all), so this isn't really surprising. Honestly, I can't imagine why anyone would want to socialize with Kushner ever. Not so much because he is evil, but because he seems like he'd be about as lively and engaging as a toadstool (meaning no disrespect to toadstools).
posted by thivaia at 10:50 AM on August 19, 2022 [5 favorites]


They generally donate them to charity and take a tax write-off, although that particular loophole may have closed.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:51 AM on August 19, 2022


"The malevolent creature known as Jared Kushner...why has nobody trapped it under a jar?"
posted by praemunire at 11:16 AM on August 19, 2022 [11 favorites]


is that something that actually happens?

In my experience it would happen the other way around.


Canine taxonomy is as follows: Everything is either Food, Sexual Partner or Boss, and anything that falls outside those categories is Toilet.

Much as with Jared's father-in-law.
posted by Grangousier at 11:54 AM on August 19, 2022 [2 favorites]


And, quoting the former White House deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell: “Every day here is sand through an hourglass, and we have to make it count.” So true, for these are the days of our lives.

LOL

cubeb's comment reminds me of the hoops I remember preachers jumping through back in my church-going youth trying to justify the Prosperity Gospel, which requires explaining away all of Jesus' plain admonishments that he was very much against rich people.
posted by JHarris at 11:57 AM on August 19, 2022 [2 favorites]


And, quoting the former White House deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell: “Every day here is sand through an hourglass, and we have to make it count.” So true, for these are the days of our lives.

I saw the Days of Our Lives snark coming from a mile away and it still made me laugh!

But god, what a twit Kushner must be. I would probably want to strangle him (or myself) after 5 minutes in a room together.
posted by TedW at 11:58 AM on August 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


Who is this book for? I don't think that Kushner is especially popular among the MAGA types and I don't think that anyone on the left is going to want to give this creep any money for his book.
posted by octothorpe at 12:09 PM on August 19, 2022 [1 favorite]




for these are the days of our lives

like meatloaf through a straw
posted by flabdablet at 12:22 PM on August 19, 2022 [8 favorites]


I am a writer, and when you tell people at parties that you are a writer they always say that they always wanted to write a book too. I think Kushner wrote this because he always wanted to be a writer, just like everybody else. I think he probably thought that writing a memoir would give him a certain social cache.

Ha ha.
posted by joannemerriam at 12:31 PM on August 19, 2022 [8 favorites]


The Republican Party will probably buy 100,000 copies, so he's not worried about bad reviews.

Haven't these kinds of books always been just a means for laundering campaign funds?
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:40 PM on August 19, 2022 [2 favorites]




That will likely be because he's been given too much free reign.
posted by flabdablet at 12:48 PM on August 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


I’m sad that Gilbert Gottfried is no longer around to do the audio book.
posted by migurski at 12:50 PM on August 19, 2022 [19 favorites]


Perhaps the most spot-on description of anyone I've ever heard: Jared Kushner looks like the villain in a Regency romance.
posted by HotToddy at 12:52 PM on August 19, 2022 [6 favorites]


> So if they, the proverbial “they,” buy a buttload of books to get it on the bestseller list, where do all those copies end up? Personally, I don’t think they will be shredded and used as home insulation, due to the high quantity of rank BS in the book.

it doesn't matter what's between the covers, it'll never get cracked. the people who buy these books are the people who have pretty libraries but haven't read anything in them.
posted by Clowder of bats at 1:33 PM on August 19, 2022


One day I will find myself at someone's house and see a shelf full of Republican political memoirs, and I will remark, "Not much of a reader, eh?"
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:50 PM on August 19, 2022 [12 favorites]


like meatloaf through a straw

That's a hell of a kink you have there. I'm only hoping you are already aware he has passed. Sincere condolences.
posted by biffa at 1:53 PM on August 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


Owning a copy of this book automatically adds you to a criminal conspiracy. Enjoy!
posted by Chuffy at 2:12 PM on August 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


Maybe he has presidential ambitions

*SNORT* sorry couldn't keep a straight face
posted by adept256 at 2:17 PM on August 19, 2022 [2 favorites]


One day I will find myself at someone's house and see a shelf full of Republican political memoirs, and I will remark, "Not much of a reader, eh?"

Lest we forget his father-in-law’s bookshelves.
posted by Mchelly at 3:54 PM on August 19, 2022 [4 favorites]


A pug’s anus has more credibility.
posted by BostonTerrier at 4:00 PM on August 19, 2022 [5 favorites]


Like tales from the Harding Administration.
posted by clavdivs at 4:04 PM on August 19, 2022 [2 favorites]


Maybe he has presidential ambitions *SNORT*

It's amazing how soon people forget...
posted by klanawa at 5:00 PM on August 19, 2022


adept256: "Maybe he has presidential ambitions"

He unquestionably does (or did, perhaps). He and Ivana were overheard discussing which of them would get to be president first.
posted by adamrice at 5:23 PM on August 19, 2022 [1 favorite]




I expect it's as close as they're allowed to writing "Jared Kushner is an objectively terrible, awful, no-good, very bad person."

"Jared Kushner is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.."
posted by kirkaracha at 6:50 PM on August 19, 2022 [2 favorites]


@kirkaracha: they said the same thing about Captain Stern, but at least he had an angle.

I guess Trump is the Hanover Fiste of this story..
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 7:15 PM on August 19, 2022


Remember when The Edge spent 14 years trying to destroy Malibu

https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/the-edge-u2-malibu/
posted by anazgnos at 7:46 PM on August 19, 2022 [7 favorites]


> Haven't these kinds of books always been just a means for laundering campaign funds?

Nonsense. And I'm sure there's a perfectly innocent reason if some Saudi prince buys several hundred million copies.
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:59 PM on August 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


Metafilter: In my experience it would happen the other way around.
posted by fairmettle at 9:16 PM on August 19, 2022


I think he probably thought that writing a memoir would give him a certain social cache.

He wrote a too early memoir because that is what Obama did.
posted by srboisvert at 4:51 AM on August 20, 2022 [1 favorite]


It's really not helping the Canadian smugness problem.

"The truth is we were draining the clock," said one Canadian involved. "Trudeau never instructed us to make a final deal. He always said [get] the right deal or no deal."
posted by bonehead at 11:19 AM on August 20, 2022 [1 favorite]


they said the same thing about Captain Stern, but at least he had an angle

Sternn! He's nothing but a low-down, double-dealing, backstabbing, larcenous perverted worm!
posted by kirkaracha at 8:02 PM on August 20, 2022


Mod note: Fixed LitHub link
posted by taz (staff) at 12:05 AM on August 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


HE WAS SENTENCED TO READ HIS OWN BOOK UNTIL THE END OF TIME

I mean, I wouldn’t piss on the guy if he was on fire but an audio book of him reading his own shit in his cartoon villain voice would be something I’d probably enjoy for five minutes. . . If I was sufficiently blazed. Then again why ruin a good high.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 6:00 AM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]




Elizabeth Spiers, former editor of the New York Observer under Jared Kushner, has a review of the book for The Washington Post: “Jared Kushner’s memoir is only inadvertently revealing”
posted by Going To Maine at 3:20 PM on August 26, 2022


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