(Reviewed by JD Jung)
A witty, morally bracing portrait of an artist adrift in Trump-era America, where poetry, precarity, and conscience collide.
Beginning in June 2017, during the early months of Trump’s first term, The Copywriter follows D__, who writes copy at a retail startup and sees work as little more than a means to a paycheck. His true ambition is poetry, and he struggles to find meaning in copywriting itself. When he—and much of the staff—are laid off, D__ is forced to confront both financial insecurity and the larger moral questions simmering beneath everyday life.
For the next two years, we follow D__ and his friends through their lives, conversations, and anxieties as he records dreams, parables, and observations in a notebook. Poems are interspersed throughout the narrative, offering sharp, often funny reflections on life. His Jewish upbringing plays a significant role in how he understands the world—shaping his awareness of antisemitism, internal thought, but also moral responsibility. D__ refuses to compromise his ethics, most notably when he is fired from a Jewish institution for refusing to “launder the reputation of a war criminal.”
The author’s droll humor is one of the book’s greatest strengths. Even when confronting bleak realities, D__narrates his surroundings with wit and curiosity, noticing small details others overlook.
This will not be a book for everyone; it will likely resonate most with a niche audience attuned to the inner thoughts of artists and poets. I enjoyed it precisely because the author’s mind—and D__’s—work differently from my own. Where he is intuitive and creative, I am more analytical, and some of the parables went beyond me. Still, we meet on common ground in a shared commitment to social justice and resistance to authoritarianism.
For readers willing to engage with a hybrid of plot, poetry, and political meditation, The Copywriter offers a sharp, original look at contemporary American life.