Rachel to the Rescue

I loved [b:Rachel to the Rescue 57870519 Rachel to the Rescue Elinor Lipman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1619496768l/57870519.SY75.jpg 86954008] by [a:Elinor Lipman 63681 Elinor Lipman https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1482327276p2/63681.jpg], but that may be because I so love the premise. Here's poor Rachel, working in the Trump White House when she's not really a Trump fan. Not even close. I'm not sure if Trump supporters would love this book, but everyone else will.Rachel is works in the White House Office of Records Management, which has the best acronym, WHORM. Just in general, like most of us, she's not overly fond of her boss. And like any of us who have sent one too many work emails, she accidentally hits Reply All on an email about how horrible her boss, the president, is. The next day, she's gets her walking papers. A little stunned, she actually steps into traffic and gets run over. That's when the fun begins.From her recovery in the hospital, to her doting parents, to her legally-astute lesbian roommates, to her foot-in-mouth muckraking new boss, Rachel finds ways to hold herself together (and even fall in love) while the world seems to be falling apart. The author's witty repartee keeps even the silliest parts of this novel interesting. My favorite scene was probably the Shabbat dinner with Ivanka's Hebrew tutor. Yes, it goes there.As crazy as the Trump administration was, it seems as though this screwball novel could actually have happened, which makes it just that much funnier. Check it out!

I was surprised to learn that Elinor Lipman's latest novel couldn't attract an American publisher. Maybe it was too soon for a still traumatized audience to expect us to laugh at Trump. Or maybe it just wasn't a great book. Rachel to the Rescue's gentle satire of 45's behavior doesn't work because the truth was always stranger (and more disturbing) than any fiction could be. Also at age 71 Lipman is unable to create anything close to realistic late Millennial/early Gen Z characters. The romance is sweet but has nothing to do with the main plot, which starts with some momentum and then just stalls out.

I hope Lipman still has some gas in the tank, but this one feels like she was writing on fumes. Those four years were tough on everybody though, so hopefully she will rebound with a stronger effort.

Rachel works for D.T. at the White House, though it was not because she supported his politics, but simply because she needed a job. When she strikes out with a drunken text and mistakenly hits “Send to All,” she is fired. On the way home, she is hit by a car driven by “a friend” of D.T., and the story takes off. Satire, folks. And we all know the power of redemption that can hide behind the odd truth of a snarky story.