The Faking of the President: Nineteen Stories of White House Noir

The Faking of the President is a collection of vignettes by several authors, some of whom are well-known. The stories all deal with history and politics, but in the vein of historical fiction, fanfiction, and noir. For example, in one story, George W. Bush is an unwitting patsy in a global conspiracy. In another, Eleanor Roosevelt manages to change the course of history by going over her husband’s head regarding refugees in 1939. In another, a researcher finds proof of James Buchanan’s gayness. Each story takes an aspect of real history and gives it a dark spin.

In many ways, the collection is a lot of fun. There’s a schadenfreude aspect to some of it; I imagined the authors smiling and rubbing their hands in delight at the fictional moments they create. I typically enjoy short stories or vignettes, and this timely subject matter – the state of our Republic, the free press, politicians’ motives, etc. – is on most Americans’ minds. The Faking of the President offers a comical and twisted version of our history. I enjoyed looking up some of the historical background behind the vignettes, and some of the collection is creative. I smiled quite a bit. However, some of these stories seemed very rushed and incomplete. Some had a silliness to their endings that I felt was a letdown and cringy. It’s a really uneven collection. I found that I had to be in the exact right mood to find the fun in these stories, given the seriousness of our national news and the unevenness of the quality of the stories.