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The Flood of New Political Books; McCain's Memoir Climbs Bestseller Lists

Sally Rooney

After John McCain’s death on Saturday, his latest book, The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations, which was published by Simon and Schuster in May, climbed to Number 2 on bestseller lists. Meanwhile, other writers dug up their copies of “Up, Simba!,” David Foster Wallace’s masterful essay about going on the road with McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign: Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson says that Wallace knew the “real McCain”; Laura Miller looks to the essay to point out that Wallace’s complex attempts to distinguish between what was authentic and false about the Arizona candidate now seems “quaint.”

The Guardian has posted a profile of Sally Rooney, the twenty-seven-year-old author of Conversations with Friends, and whose new novel, Normal People (out in the US in 2019), is on the Booker Prize longlist.

The New Republic has posted three new poems as part of its “Migration Series”: “/’mīgrent/” by Tiana Nobile, “ESL” by Aline Mello, and “(un)documents” by Jesus I. Valles. In her latest column for Literary Hub, Rebecca Solnit argues that we have only one option in the face of Trump’s presidency so far: impeach. Publishing Perspectives rounds up the “flood” of political books coming out in the months leading up to the midterm elections.