Book Review: Too Much and Never Enough

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, by Mary Trump, PhD (Simon & Schuster, 225 pages, 2020, $28.00)

A Short Bestseller, A Literary Soap Opera?

Too Much and Never Enough – a complex title for a short book (225 pages) about a dysfunctional New York City family that made the top of the New York Times Bestseller List (the book, not the family - certainly not the family).

However, the family may be one of the most powerful and wealthy in the country for over half a century and one which nearly every American follows voraciously each day. Some even wake up in the morning wondering what the news of the family (and especially its ‘leader’) will be to stretch the imagination that day.

Popular books are sometimes written by famous (or infamous) people or about well-known events (911, e.g.) or both. This is one such book for both reasons.

Other popular books have an engrossing plot or are extremely well-written. Although Too Much is well-written, it could have used more substantive editing: chapter titles might have had the years associated with them, but then, the prose would have to be written chronologically rather than skipping around. Secondly, the writer is biased which is quite evident. However, we feel we know the characters already and want to know more about them.

Author Mary Trump, our president’s niece, holds a doctorate in psychology which is quite apparent. Her writing style attempts to reach the average reader, but still it is obvious that she holds an advanced degree as well as considerable work and teaching experience in aberrant behavior: she describes her family through the eyes of one who has seen much more deviant behavior.

The average writer, however, would probably merely describe the strange family events rather than comment on them with numerous adjectives, comparing her uncle (and the rest of the family) in not-so-glowing terms that border on psychological deviance.

And the author herself, born into extreme wealth, came to expect her share of her grandfather’s fortune, merely by virtue of her birth.

The author has been interviewed considerably, especially about her uncle’s paying a friend to take an entrance exam for him and for her own legal court suit to gain the inheritance which she felt was her birthright – not only because it was monetary but also because the family equates money with love.

This reviewer read this book quickly (and it ends rather abruptly) and then went back and re-read the beginning.

And the most revealing and disappointing news concerned how the author’s aunt Maryanne obtained her judgeship and how she changed her mind about her brother.

If you don’t follow the daily antics of this family, you will remain glued to the pages, just like a soap opera!

Caveat: This book was purchased for review.