Hugely enjoying Ayad Akhtar, let her tell ya. Self, too, is trying to understand the mystique of The Former Guy.
Here, Akhtar continues to try to de-construct his father’s support for DJT:
I think Father was looking for an image of just how much more his American self could contain than the Pakistani one he’d left behind. I think he wanted to know what the limits were. In America, you could have anything, right? Even the presidency? If an idiot like Trump could get hold of it, couldn’t you? Even if you didn’t want it? After all, the idiot apparently didn’t want it, either. He just wanted to know he could have it. Or maybe the emphasis there needs to shift: he wanted to know he could have it.
— p. 23, Homeland Elegies
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.