Jared Kushner received one of the harshest book reviews of the year from New York Times critic Dwight Garner. But Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former senior advisor claims he actually found the takedown amusing, Vanity Fair reports.
Last week, Garner reviewed Kushner’s memoir, Breaking History, and was decidedly unimpressed, writing that the book was “queasy-making” as well as “earnest and soulless—Kushner looks like a mannequin, and he writes like one.” (A critic for Kirkus agreed, calling the book “bland, dutiful, self-serving, and unconvincing.”)
Kushner addressed the review on Megyn Kelly’s radio show. “I read that review, and I thought it was hysterical,” he said, after Kelly read an excerpt from Garner’s article. “I’ve actually been asking my team to try to find a hard copy, because I want to hang it on my wall, but I don’t if they put it in [the print edition].
“The second thing I’ll say about that is that it actually sold a lot of books,” he continued. “That’s when I started moving up the Amazon list.…So I have to thank the New York Times for that.”
Kushner still might get a good review from his father-in-law—the Guardian reports that Kushner told a Fox News host that Trump is now reading the book, saying, “He’s given me some compliments on it so far.”
As of Thursday morning, Kushner’s memoir was ranked the No. 3 bestselling book on Amazon. It’s also No. 12 at Barnes & Noble, but that rank could go up if in-store customers happen to notice the doctored copies that two comedians left at one location—the books bear the title I Am Slenderman and Other Scary Stories.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
