Citizens Of The Green Room: Profiles in Courage and Self-Delusion

(Paperback)

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Mark Leibovich returns to puncture the inflated personas of the powerful and reveal the lives, stories and peculiarities behind their public masks. On subjects including Hillary Clinton, Glenn Beck, John Kerry, Paul Ryan, Chris Christie and John McCain, Leibovich maintains a refreshing conviviality even as he renders incisive and unflinching assessments. Confirming his reputation as 'a master of the political profile' Citizens Of The Green Room will delight the legions of political junkies who avidly read Leibovich's work in The New York Times Magazine.

Reviews

Praise for Citizens of the Green Room

Mark Leibovich profiles are like flaming Dr. Pepper shots. Theyre great Leibovichs profiles, read en masse, lay bare Washingtons formative paradox: You cant fix D.C. unless you go there, and you cant do well there without becoming everything thats broken about it. Slate

Amusing and perceptive tales of the political animals in the zoo that is WashingtonThese essays and profiles are uniformly witty Leibovich delivers full-dimensional portraits of these eccentric D.C. denizens. Humorous, incisive and very droll.Kirkus

"Leibovich, the chief national correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, who specializes in profiles of people and places, brings together under one roof some of his best and most noteworthy profiles of American political and media figures...Fascinating fare for political wonks."Booklist

Praise for This Town

"This Town is funny, it's interesting, and it is demoralizing ... I loved it as much as you can love something which hurts your heart."John Oliver, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

In addition to his reporting talents, Leibovich is a writer of excellent zest. At times his book is laugh-out-loud (as well as weep-out-loud). He is an exuberant writer, even as his reporting leaves one reaching for Xanax[This Town] is vastly entertaining and deeply troubling.Christopher Buckley, The New York Times Book Review

"It's been the summer of This Town. What lingers from This Town is what will linger in Washington well after its current dinosaurs are extinct: the political culture owned by big money."Frank Rich, New York Magazine

"Many decades from now, a historian looking at where America lost its way could use This Town as a primary source."Fareed Zakaria

Here it is, Washington in all its splendid, sordid glory[Leibovich] seems to wear those special glasses that allow you to x-ray the outside and see whats really going on. Start to finish, this is a brilliant portrait pointillist, you might say, or modern realist. So brilliant that once it lands on a front table at Politics & Prose Leibovich will never be able to have lunch in this town again. There are also important insights tucked in among the barbsSo heres to all the big mouths, big shots, big machers, and big jerks. In case youre wondering, Mark Leibovich is on to every one of you, and his portrayal of This Town is spot on. David Shribman, The New York Times

In his new bookThis Town, Mark Leibovich commits an act of treason against the Washington establishment Thoroughly entertaining Leibovich is a keen observer and energetic writer.Reid Pillifant, New York Observer

This Town is a frothy Beltway insider tell-all rollicking fun and sharply written. A big, sprawling fun beach read of a booksnappy and well-crafted.Susan Gardner, The Daily Kos

This Town is as entertaining for the broader picture it paints of a capital that corrupts even the most incorruptible as it is for the salacious gossip that dominated early reviews. Books like Leibovichs are important resources for historians who, a century from now, will use This Town as a trove of background information for a pivotal period when our politics became poisonous.Reid Wilson, The National Journal

Leibovich delivers the reportorial goods. He is in all the parties, and supplies a wildly entertaining anthrolopogical tour.Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

Leibovich has written a very funny book about how horrible his industry can be Uncommonly honest.David Weigel, Slate

[Leibovich] is a master of the political profile This Town is as insidery as Game ChangeCarlos Lozada, Washington Post

Intensely anticipated. [Leibovich] has a real affection for many of his characters [and] also throws a few unapologetically hard punches. Ben Smith, Buzzfeed

Witty, entertaining.the book is enlightening on how journalism is practiced in WashingtonThis Town could also be source material for your book about whats wrong with these horrible people and more importantly, but also much more difficult how to fix the culture that led to their ascendance.This Town is a funny book, but it should probably make you as angry and depressed as 'Two American Families'. Alex Pareene, Salon

For the sweaty, twitching, huddled masses of Washington gossip addicts, This Town is rife with such shiny nuggets, the literary equivalent of crack. Lloyd Grove, Newsweek/The Daily Beast

Corrosively funny and subtly subversive. siren song of money and pseudo-celebrity .irresistible."Walter Shapiro, The American Prospect

Like a modern-day Balzac to US capital power players.hilarious.perceptive. Richard McGregor, Financial Times

A rollicking, if disconcerting, read.Denver Post

Provides a lancing, often hysterically funny portrait of the capitals vanities and ambitions. The New Yorker

A common trope among conservatives is the 'cocktail party scene,' which Republican reformers encounter when they go to Washington and which lures them into selling out their beliefs. This Town provides plenty of evidence not only that those worries are grounded, but that its far worse than we imagined.[U]nusual and refreshing. [A] successful and needed undertaking. Leibovich enlivens his tedious subjects with a funny and vivid writing style. hes also an engaging storyteller. The last quarter of This Town, which dishes on Leibovichs encounters with the major players from the 2012 election, is undeniably good reading If you want to understand why you should wake up quivering with white-hot hatred for elite Washington, This Town is well worth your time. Matt Purple, The American Spectator

[A] sharp-eyed, funny and elegantly written takedown of Washingtons crass, insidery, back-scratching (by journalists and politicians alike) culture. [T]he Tony Soprano of journalistsbut with a heart. Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg News

This book has to be the book of the summer, open on the fat or flat bellies of Washington's privileged political elite at Rehoboth, Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket. Even if they are in it, or are looking for themselves in it with dread or delicious anticipation, a Washington version of narcissism, This Town is not to be missed. Dan Simpson, Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Not since Truman Capotes Answered Prayers knocked New York society on its heels with its thinly fictionalized revelations of real players who had thought the author was their friend has a book so riled a citys upper echelons.Lois Romano, Politico

Author Bio

Mark Leibovich is The New York Times Magazine's chief national correspondent. He lives with his family in Washington, D.C.