Book review: This Town, by Mark Leibovich
Of all the irritating things about Washington, DC - the phoniness, the showy cars, the utter inability of 6.9 million people to produce a single decent slice of pizza or a passable submarine sandwich with oil and not mayonnaise - none is more infuriating than the local insider habit of referring to the place as "this town".
Of all the irritating things about Washington, DC - the phoniness, the showy cars, the utter inability of 6.9 million people to produce a single decent slice of pizza or a passable submarine sandwich with oil and not mayonnaise - none is more infuriating than the local insider habit of referring to the place as "this town".
So when Mark Leibovich sketches a portrait of the nation's capital - a phrase used only by people who don't live there - and calls it , you know he has a sharp ear, and a sharp eye to accompany it. You also know he has the sharp knives out.
Leibovich is an insider, first a reporter at , now chief national correspondent for , yet he seems to wear those special glasses that allow you to X-ray the outside and see what's really going on in the capital.
In the old days, Washington - then as now a place where "disproportionate numbers of residents lie about reading " - was pretty much a bar where everyone knew your name. Now it's far less personal - but the personal matters far more and so do personalities.
This book is a wiseguy's tour d'horizon of an entire city trying out for the role of Washington wise man.
