Veep is a great show. It’s so good that I couldn’t resist buying A Woman First: First Woman, even though I’m not often one for TV show or movie tie-ins (though I have made exceptions: see The Real Festivus). The book is proported to be an autobiography by former president Selina Meyer, and is presumably distinct from the fictitous Some New Beginnings: Our Next American Journey (though I would happily read that as well). Humour books are tricky, but this one plays very well, with a solid collection of jokes that vary enough in structure to avoid getting formulaic or predictable. It also fleshes out some of the events in the show, which always took the admirable path of hinting at actions rather than dumping exposition in your lap. (I confess that I didn’t fully understand the Uzbek hostage scandal until I read about it here.)
There are some jokes hinting that the entire book was lazily ghostwritten, presumably by Mike McLintock, and the early chapters parsody the optimistic vacuity of most politicians’ books. However, the bulk of the book is presented as an honest recounting of Selina’s life, told from her perspective but without the outright lies that would doubtless obscure any actual publication the character put out. It reads most like a long-winded grievance told to a trusted confident. Selina is arrogant, insulting, and blind to her many defects, but she still tells the story more or less as it probably happened, rather than causing you to glimpse the truth behind veils of falsehood, which is more what I expected.
The voice feels very much like Selina’s, particularly in the final seasons, where her original flaws have metastatized and consumed whatever bit of actual humanity she’d possessed in season 1. Veep and I’m Alan Partridge, two of my favourite shows, were both written by Armando Iannucci, and while there are certainly similarities betwee nthe tow characters—outwardly successful bigheads who are nevertheless deeply unhappy and busting their skulls bloody on the ceilings of their own limitations—I noted in watching Veep that Selina’s flaws deepen, while Alan’s remain more or less flat. Selina in season 1 is a better person than Alan Partridge, but Selina in season 6 is far worse, plummeting past pigheadedness into the depths of clinical sociopathy. I would mark season 4 as the point in which their lines cross on the old Douchometer, though I’d need to rewatch the show carefully to be sure.
Definitely something for fans of the series to pick up,