I did not have high hopes for this book, even with the achievement of being on the New York Times 2022 Notable Books list--after all, the author is a well known, well respected New Yorker, and it is the home town paper. I was wrong about that, it turns out. The author's sparkling prose and eye for detail make this an entertaining book, as well as forcing the reader to see what in fact might and might not motivate the main players, and how fragile the whole thing is in the modern world. What is on offer here? A close up look at the state of the crown, and the summation is not flattering. Sadism, parsimony, profligacy, infantilism, racism with a healthy helping of classism, ruthlessness, rudeness, coldness, extreme entitlement, sexual misconduct, and, last, but not least, incredible stupidity. The motivations of those who are born to their roles and those that enter the fray of their own accord are meticulously examined in this admittedly lengthy tome.
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