There’s an essay early in David Mamet’s new book...that offers a tantalizing glimpse of what the book could have been, were the celebrated playwright’s brains not so irradiated by right-wing media and memes.

Anecdotal.

Mamet’s conspiracy theories aren’t exactly harm-ful (the only two kinds of people who’ll finish this book are those who already agree with it and those who’ve been paid to review it), but they’re often breathtakingly stupid.

In many ways this is a story about rebirth and the restorative qualities of nature. Baume avoids clichéd notions of inherent benevolence in the bucolic, highlighting instead the tangible realities of their surroundings.

Pugnacious if undercooked essays.

A playwright once known for brilliant observation delivers an irate diatribe against anyone who doesn’t like Donald Trump.