“Basket of deplorables” is a term that Hillary Clinton applied to the xenophobic wing of Donald Trump’s supporters in a September 2016 campaign speech. Basket of Deplorables is Tom Rachman’s third of five books and I somehow had never heard of it until a good few years after its release. That surprised me because I’ve followed his career with interest and read his other works right at their publication.
Like Rachman’s The Imperfectionists and The Imposters, it’s a linked short story collection. The five stories are on the longish side but read quickly. In the opening title piece, a woman who went blind after an accident co-hosts a 2016 presidential election watch party with her husband in their Manhattan apartment. Their friends are uniformly left-wing and choke with disbelief as results start to filter through. In “Truth Is for Losers,” Glen agrees to stage a funeral for his billionaire brother Fleming, who has faked his own death. The memorial service is an opportunity for high farce, but I also warmed to Glen for his simple enthusiasm for his job as a Starbucks barista in Kalamazoo. This was my favourite of the stories; its depiction of the spread of fake news feels like a worthwhile analogy rather than a rehashing of headlines.
“Leakzilla” imagines the complications of Internet dating in an alternate world where would-be partners can scour each other’s e-mail history at will – and find out that someone masquerading as clued-in voted for Trump in 2016. “Sad! Wrong! Not Nice!” follows Fleming, a Trump-esque blowhard, into his new life in Italy. The backstory of a minor character explains a mysterious moment from the first piece, and the sister of the woman from “Leakzilla” is then the protagonist of “How the End Begins.” Here, Kelly discovers with quiet horror a website where you can input any person’s name and view their future cause of death. There is a grim dystopian edge to this final story.
Rachman gave the book the tagline (not quite a subtitle) of “Almost-true stories.” I suspect it was written quickly in response to Trump’s election and it is rather thin, aiming at obvious targets and exhibiting wholly reasonable yet unsubtle liberal outrage. I found it so depressing to see how history threatens to repeat itself less than a decade later:
“David’s worry is that Trump won’t accept his defeat, throwing the whole democratic process into chaos”
“More a boomerang of history, where we keep throwing out the bad bits, and they keep flying back, hitting us in the mouth.”
I can hardly bear to think about tomorrow’s election. The USA could elect the first woman president (of color, no less), or hand power back to a cretin – a convicted felon and probably the worst holder of the office in its nearly 250 years. It’s a choice between progress and regression. Between sanity and sleepwalking into destruction. And whatever happens at the polls, it seems inevitable that Trump will foment further violence and hatred.
Did I do all I could? I sent in my postal vote several weeks ago, and donated to the Harris/Walz campaign (which means I now get seven e-mails a day from them, but that’s fine). The local Democrats Abroad branch didn’t reply to me over the summer, so I missed out on the chance to volunteer with them, whereas in 2020 I colored in postcards to send to Democrat-registered North Carolina voters in the UK to remind them to get their ballots.
My leanings are clear, then, and I’m sure pretty much all my readers will concur. That I didn’t enjoy this obscure Rachman work more is due to my low tolerance for satire in general and to the fact that these stories of division and deception are not almost true, but all too true. (Secondhand – gift from my wish list, Christmas 2023) 
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I’m not sure I could read this – at the moment anyway. Since I’m not American, my despair can’t be as deep as yours but this week’s shaping up to be pretty dystopian.
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Well, at least I could do something towards the situation, by voting (though my state, Maryland, is safely Democratic). It seems unfair how the U.S. election affects so many worldwide and yet so few have a chance to influence it.
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I know. Terrifying actually.
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I’d not come across this either. I can see it would be a little too close to the bone, particularly reading it in such a febrile atmosphere. I can’t seem to keep away from the polls since I came back from holiday. Everything crossed for tomorrow, but I think you’re right – it won’t be the end of it for Trump, even if he loses.
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I mostly avoid the news, but my husband keeps up with it. It doesn’t feel like that long ago since he stayed up all night in 2016 to monitor the results and in the early morning delivered the unbelievable verdict, “He’s going to win handsomely.”
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Also the year of the referendum here. Very wise to steer clear of the news.
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Indeed, a year of shocking outcomes. We like to say we ‘went down the wrong trouser leg of time’ then.
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Very timely – I’ll be up watching the election, though obviously couldn’t vote or donate!
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I was actually invited to a Democrats Abroad UK watch party in London, but I can’t imagine anything more stressful!
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Nooooooooo
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Oof. Not sure I could have read this at this moment in time. I too have already voted absentee (although I didn’t donate, which was more a question of oversight than intention). I’m not gluing myself to the news either, especially because it takes so long to count all the votes, but there’s something about the group/global experience of “watching the election” that is very seductive. Entertainingly, I happen to have a therapy session the day after the election—one way or another it’ll probably be needed.
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Urgh. Yes, will definitely need the therapy and/or a stiff drink, either way!
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It’s looking like needing both today.
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It will be nice to debrief with book club friends tonight over wine. Won’t be opening the bubbly, though.
I hope the therapy session is a balm. My stepsister and best friend have both strongly recommended talk therapy.
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Yeah, that’s a pass for me too! (I voted, and got my sister to vote as well this time. Mind you, it won’t help much because we’re registered in navy blue Illinois, but still. I also donated to the campaign. Fingers crossed, she gets in! And then, fingers crossed again, they don’t pull some underhanded stunt to get congress to reverse the decision of the public.)
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Well done for voting and encouraging others to do so. That’s all we can do, I suppose. I have no doubt Trump will try something extreme if it looks like the vote isn’t going his way.
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I was thinking about reading more Tom Rachman just the other day after reading an essay written by him that will be published in an upcoming anthology. The timing for this one might not have been quite right, and it certainly wouldn’t be now, either. Hugs from Nova Scotia! xo
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Ah, I encountered Rachman in Best Canadian Essays 2023 (I hadn’t realized before that that he was Canadian!).
Sigh. I kept thinking as Election Day approached that I had no idea whether we were going to be relieved and celebrating, or aghast. A Schrodinger sort of situation, and there was nothing I could do to change the outcome.
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Well, I hear if you have a newer phone, you get both emails AND texts, so you are missing out.
And of course now the definiion of handsomely has been broadened, substantially.
You’d best start your 2028 volunteer work now. And not only you, but the rest of us as well. Hugs from Ontario, too.
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Resistance is going to have to start at the grassroots. Volunteering in general feels even more important now, as a way to care for people when governments won’t.
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I don’t really care for satire much either. I’ve been cycling through all the emotions since Tuesday. Grief is real. I’m trying to listen to podcasts to make sense of it all. One thing is clear to me – Democrats have to do something different than what they’ve been doing. Also, community care is more important than ever.
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Absolutely agree about community care. I’m so disheartened that America seems unwilling to elect a woman or another person of color.
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I’ve never heard of this book either and I’ve seen Rachman in person a couple of years ago. The disappointment is too fresh this week but maybe I’ll look for this in the future. Or maybe he’ll write a new book in response.
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Ooh, I’d like to see him speak. His first two books are favourites of mine. I should reread them.
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I’ve only read The Imposters but it was so interesting!
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