The President’s Desk (Shaun Micallef, Hardie Grant)

The President’s Desk is exactly what you would hope for in a book about the history of America by Shaun Micallef. It’s the perfect topic for him; as mad as Micallef is, history is even madder, and Micallef does an outstanding job of seamlessly blending the two. With the president’s desk itself acting as a sort of centrepiece, each chapter briefly summarises the, let’s say, lesser-known undertakings of the leaders of the free world during their time at the helm. These are as bizarre as discovering that the president’s desk is actually a portal to Windsor Castle, or as real as transcripts of Nixon’s White House tapes documenting his meeting with Elvis. Littered with entirely delicious words and phrases (I am now impatiently waiting for the opportunity to call someone a mendacious parvenu to arise), The President’s Desk feels like a comic ballet pinned down to paper. More than once, I found myself pausing to admire the elegance of Micallef’s parlance only to be surprised by a blunt, but equally beautiful and funny, punchline. The President’s Desk is perfect for those who enjoy the works of Spike Milligan, Douglas Adams and the like and, of course, for fans of Micallef himself. It is wonderfully weird and sublimely silly.

Dani Solomon is a bookseller at Readings Carlton

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Category: Reviews