Roanna Gonsalves

I was really taken aback by that, actually.

Well, it is an interesting question, isn't it?

Because the personal is political, as we've been told for many decades now.

But I mean, political fiction could be anything from Catch-22 to A Song of Fire and Ice, which is more commonly known as Game of Thrones, which is really a masterclass in Machiavellian politics and much has been written academically about

about that and the way it works.

You know, there are so many examples of political fiction.

And I think Dennis's point is where reality and fiction collide is where, you know, this sort of nexus of which is stranger occurs.

It seems to be, although Armando Iannucci, the showrunner of many comedies such as Veep and The Thick of It, he recently said that it's the comedy shows that are doing the most insightful political analysis at the moment because they're the only ones who can keep up with it.

That's interesting.

Perhaps this is a trap that you fall into when you're trying to hold a mirror up to contemporary events.

Because I'm thinking also of that book called Pussy, which was written by Howard Jacobson, released, I think, April last year.

Now, it was about Trump.

I was given a copy of it and I'm ashamed to say I couldn't even finish it.

But I was vindicated, I think, by a review that came out in the Sunday Times magazine with the headline, Too Fast, Too Furious.

It was a first draft, essentially.

As reviewed by Dennis Atkins, who's a political writer for The Courier-Mail.

Dennis, thank you so much for being part of this conversation and telling us all about this diversion.

You're listening to The Bookshelf on RN or on your pod or from some signal that's bouncing off something in the universe and coming back to you here on Earth.

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