Review: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was somewhat disappointing. Anyone expecting a tell all expose' about the deep dark secrets of the Trump family are not going to get what they want. Most of what is written in the book was already publicly known. Certainly she added some insider insight to the events, but I don't think there was much here we did not already know. It seems to me, the lawsuit filed against this books publication was a waste of time, if anyone in the Trump family had actually read the book prior to publication, I am sure they would have done what I did, which was respond with a shoulder shrug and Well Okay then.

From a writing perspective, Mary Trump is a pretty good writer, she is use to writing academic works rather than works of entertainment and that does show through, however she does manage to capture the moments moods and her own emotional state as the book proceeds. She is also very clever in how she presented some of the information within the book. She is a clinical psychologist, she is very aware of the the various psychological maladies that inflict her family, but is very good at actually very good at avoiding actually providing a profession diagnosis to any any of them. For instance, when talking about Donald Trump himself, she asks the question "Is Donald a narcissist?" and answers the question with "I don't know, but he does exhibit the all 9 characteristics associated with Narcissistic Personalty Disorder.". This was a great dodge.

Overall, the writing is good and does provide some insight into the Trump family, although the first half of the book focus's more on her father than the rest of the family. If you are expecting any huge revelations about Donald Trump, that is just not going to happen.

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