This memoir comes from a disgruntled one-time exec for Trump, and it shows. Yes, it is a bit of a hit-piece, BUT, it has a lot of interesting facts and telling details. Plenty of that is not pretty, but there is often some nuance to the telling here. One can draw a straight line from Trump’s germ-phobia and recoiling from actual contact with the plain folks, to his policies and reactions one sees daily. Indeed, Trump’s basic presidential ambitions and big policy points were recited by him here. He has been consistent on a lot of things — through a very changing world. His fixed ideas are etched in some sort of super-concrete. But then, he’s a character, and Trump shows a remarkable sort of compact concentrated sense of self and mission and moves that is something to behold, and weirdly, he has landed on his feet after spectacular reversals (he was often enough the creator of). (Now, he’s playing with our chips: the faith, credit and reputation of the USA. Hmmm ….)

The story flows well and is paced and narrated in a very listenable way. This was a fascinating time (late 80’s into very early 90’s) in Atlantic City, and this is a very well-paced telling of the chess moves among the big casino operators. It is full of the sound business sense of this particular exec and others. Obviously, Trump learned to attract good advisors and make use of them, even as things got shaky. I would bookend this book with a print favorite of mine (I’m almost through my second reading), The Vulture Investors by Hilary Rosenberg. That book dissects the Trump-AC casino bankruptcies in fantastic detail with good storytelling (and we see where Wilbur Ross- now Trump’s Secretary of Commerce, and a guy everywhere in vulture investing back then, came onstage (and to some large degree, helped save Trump’s bacon). This narrator is among my favorites, and in fine form here.