Mark Leibovich is a recipient of the National Magazine Award for profile writing. He is the author of four books, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Thank You for Your Servitude and This Town. He recently joined The Atlantic, after a ten-year stint as chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine. Before arriving at the magazine in 2012, Leibovich covered national politics in the Times' Washington Bureau. He previously worked at The Washington Post and the San Jose Mercury News. He lives with his family in Washington, D.C.
"This Town is funny, it's interesting, and it is demoralizing ... I
loved it as much as you can love something which hurts your
heart."—John Oliver, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
“In addition to his reporting talents, Leibovich is a writer of
excellent zest. At times his book is laugh-out-loud (as well as
weep-out-loud). He is an exuberant writer, even as his reporting
leaves one reaching for Xanax…[This Town] is vastly entertaining
and deeply troubling.”—Christopher Buckley, The New York Times Book
Review
"It's been the summer of This Town. What lingers from This Town is
what will linger in Washington well after its current dinosaurs are
extinct: the political culture owned by big money."—Frank Rich, New
York Magazine
"Many decades from now, a historian looking at where America lost
its way could use This Town as a primary source."—Fareed
Zakaria
“Here it is, Washington in all its splendid, sordid
glory…[Leibovich] seems to wear those special glasses that allow
you to x-ray the outside and see what’s really going on. Start to
finish, this is a brilliant portrait – pointillist, you might say,
or modern realist. So brilliant that once it lands on a front table
at Politics & Prose Leibovich will never be able to have lunch in
this town again. There are also important insights tucked in among
the barbs…So here’s to all the big mouths, big shots, big machers,
and big jerks. In case you’re wondering, Mark Leibovich is on to
every one of you, and his portrayal of This Town is spot on.”
—David Shribman, The New York Times
“In his new book This Town, Mark Leibovich commits an act of
treason against the Washington establishment… Thoroughly
entertaining… Leibovich is a keen observer and energetic
writer.”—Reid Pillifant, New York Observer
“This Town is a frothy Beltway insider tell-all …rollicking fun and
sharply written. A big, sprawling fun beach read of a book—snappy
and well-crafted.”—Susan Gardner, The Daily Kos
“This Town is as entertaining for the broader picture it paints of
a capital that corrupts even the most incorruptible as it is for
the salacious gossip that dominated early reviews. Books like
Leibovich’s are important resources for historians who, a century
from now, will use This Town as a trove of background information
for a pivotal period when our politics became poisonous.”—Reid
Wilson, The National Journal
“Leibovich delivers the reportorial goods. He is in all the
parties, and supplies a wildly entertaining anthrolopogical
tour.”—Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
“Leibovich has written a very funny book about how horrible his
industry can be… Uncommonly honest.”—David Weigel, Slate
“[Leibovich] is a master of the political profile… This Town is as
insidery as Game Change”—Carlos Lozada, Washington Post
“Intensely anticipated…. [Leibovich] has a real affection for many
of his characters… [and] also throws a few unapologetically hard
punches.” —Ben Smith, Buzzfeed
“Witty, entertaining….the book is enlightening on how journalism is
practiced in Washington…This Town could also be source material for
your book about what’s wrong with these horrible people and – more
importantly, but also much more difficult – how to fix the culture
that led to their ascendance….This Town is a funny book, but it
should probably make you as angry and depressed as “Two American
Families.” —Alex Pareene, Salon.com
“For the sweaty, twitching, huddled masses of Washington gossip
addicts, This Town is rife with such shiny nuggets, the literary
equivalent of crack.”— Lloyd Grove, Newsweek/The Daily Beast
“Corrosively funny and subtly subversive…. siren song of money and
pseudo-celebrity ….irresistible."—Walter Shapiro, The American
Prospect
“Like a modern-day Balzac to US capital power
players….hilarious….perceptive.” —Richard McGregor, Financial
Times
“A rollicking, if disconcerting, read.”—Denver Post
“Provides a lancing, often hysterically funny portrait of the
capital’s vanities and ambitions.” —The New Yorker
“A common trope among conservatives is the “cocktail party scene,”
which Republican reformers encounter when they go to Washington and
which lures them into selling out their beliefs. This Town provides
plenty of evidence not only that those worries are grounded, but
that it’s far worse than we imagined….[U]nusual and refreshing….
[A] successful and needed undertaking…. Leibovich enlivens his
tedious subjects with a funny and vivid writing style…. he’s also
an engaging storyteller. The last quarter of This Town, which
dishes on Leibovich’s encounters with the major players from the
2012 election, is undeniably good reading… If you want to
understand why you should wake up quivering with white-hot hatred
for elite Washington, This Town is well worth your time.” —Matt
Purple, The American Spectator
“[A] sharp-eyed, funny and elegantly written takedown of
Washington’s crass, insidery, back-scratching (by journalists and
politicians alike) culture…. [T]he Tony Soprano of journalists…but
with a heart.” —Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg News
“This book has to be the book of the summer, open on the fat or
flat bellies of Washington's privileged political elite at
Rehoboth, Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket. Even if they are in it,
or are looking for themselves in it with dread or delicious
anticipation, a Washington version of narcissism, "This Town" is
not to be missed.” —Dan Simpson, Pittsburgh Post Gazette
“Not since Truman Capote’s “Answered Prayers” knocked New York
society on its heels with its thinly fictionalized revelations of
real players who had thought the author was their friend has a book
so riled a city’s upper echelons.”—Lois Romano, Politico
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