The Washington Post - 23.08.2019

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 23 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/STYLE EZ RE C

BY CRYSTAL HANA KIM

Susan Straight’s memoir “In the
Country of Women” is at its core an
extended letter to her three daughters,
Gaila, Delphine and Rosette Sims. This
book, Straight writes, will be about the
generations of women — from both
Straight’s and their father Dwayne
Sims’s sides — who have made their
lives possible. These women are “from
slave ships arrived to America, from
boats leaving Europe after World War
II, from indigenous peoples, hardened
ranchwomen, and fierce mothers.” As
Straight examines their lives, a com-
plex, multiracial and multicultural lin-
eage unravels. Through these family
stories, Straight also adeptly exposes
the complicated realities of American
history.
Strikingly, the memoir is as much
about place and belonging as it is about
family. For great-great-grandmother
Fine Kemp, born in a former slave cabin
and forcibly taken by a white family,
Straight ends the chapter with: “Mc-
Minnville to Nashville, Tennessee, to
Denton, Texas: 714 miles, not counting

the miles walked from the woodpile

and the well to the house of the woman

who beat her, or the miles walked in the

forest picking blackberries and selling

them in pails along the road.” Through

rich descriptions and careful research,

Straight so vividly captures Fine’s long

and difficult life, we feel the exhaustion

in our bones.

“In the Country of Women” is not

only about the people of the past, but of

those still living as well. In lucid prose,

Straight weaves in stories of her child-

hood in Riverside, Calif., where she still

lives. In an ode to this hardscrabble and

diverse city, Straight recounts growing

up alongside immigrants from Japan,

SEE BOOK WORLD ON C3

BOOK WORLD

Susan Straight laces diverse

lineages into ties that bind

IN THE

COUNTRY OF

WOMEN

By Susan

Straight

Catapult.

384 pp. $26

BY HANK STUEVER

Friends, have I got a TV show for you. True, it has a sort of lame and unnecessarily pretentious title —

“On Becoming a God in Central Florida” — but I’m here to tell you it will clean your floors, shine your

shoes, organize your closets, brighten your kitchen and, most importantly, enrich your life beyond

your wildest dreams. ¶ Or it won’t. Still, as darkly comedic dramas about the sorry state of the

human condition go, “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” (premiering Sunday on Showtime) is

a delectably weird and compellingly realized misadventure tale that makes a spot-on point about the

inescapable degree of fraud that infests American-style capitalism and promises shortcuts to

making millions. ¶ Although it is set in an “Orlando adjacent” town in 1992, “On Becoming a God” is

very much of a piece with all the snake oil being sold to us in 2019: the robocalls asking for your

Social Security number; the relentless me-first entrepreneurism that boasts disruption as its

primary virtue; the predatory lending; the cultish, $45 spin-cycle classes; and even a flimflam

president who is deathly afraid of sharing his tax returns. SEE TV REVIEW ON C4

BY PETER MARKS

An odd little smile crosses the face of

Bobby Smith as he relates the disordered

thoughts of presidential killer Charles J.

Guiteau in Signature Theatre’s perverse-

ly entertaining revival of “Assassins.” In

what twisted frame of mind would this

man have to be to boast of his horrific

homicidal achievement — and not just

boast, but sing about it, too?

That question crops up again and

again with the infamous gallery that

populates composer Stephen Sondheim

and book writer John Weidman’s 1990

musical. The show’s themes seem partic-

ularly consonant now in a country whose

political atmosphere seems sick at heart.

For “Assassins” — one of Sondheim’s

most brazenly original works — is a kind

of melodic postmortem on the cluster of

moral and mental illnesses that compel

broken people to kill American presi-

dents. “Tell me, Jodie, how I can earn

your love,” John Hinckley Jr., in the

spookily affectless guise of Evan Casey,

THEATER REVIEW

Signature Theatre’s production is killer

‘Assassins’: A musical about

historical figures who put

presidents in the crosshairs

CHRISTOPHER MUELLER

PATTI PERRET/SONY/SHOWTIME

TV REVIEW

Showtime lets you in on the ground floor of a sweet deal called ‘On Becoming a God in Central Florida’

BY PAUL FARHI

Fox News has hired former White
House press secretary Sarah Sanders as a
contributor, adding another loyalist to
President Trump to its lineup of pundits
and hosts.
Sanders served as Trump’s press secre-
tary from July 2017 until late June, when
she resigned, saying she was moving
back to her native Arkansas. She is
widely considered to be eyeing a run for
governor of the state but has not made an
announcement.
Sanders is the daughter of Mike Huck-
abee, the former governor of Arkansas,
and also a Fox News contributor. She
joined Trump’s campaign in 2016 after
managing her father’s unsuccessful bid
for the Republican nomination against
Trump.
Former press secretaries are typically
in high demand by the cable news
networks because of their insight into
the personalities, politics and policies at
the White House and their name recogni-
tion. Top White House communications
officials such as George Stephanopoulos
(ABC), Dee Dee Myers (CNBC), Jay Car-
ney (CNN) and Robert Gibbs (NBC),
among others, all went on to TV pundit
careers after working for presidents.
Sanders was a frequent interview
guest on Fox News during her time as
press secretary. During her tenure, the
White House stopped giving press brief-
ings, but Sanders nevertheless appeared
regularly on Fox News, especially “Fox &
Friends,” the network’s top-rated morn-
ing program.
Fox News has a long history of provid-
ing a platform for Republicans hoping to
maintain their visibility before launch-
ing new campaigns for office. Most
prominently, it gave Trump a regular
weekly spot on “Fox & Friends” in 2011.
Trump used his time on the air to float
themes that would later be part of his
SEE SANDERS ON C2

Sarah Sanders

signs on as

a contributor

at Fox News

MOVIE REVIEWS IN WEEKEND





 American Factory The first film from the Obamas’ production company is a nuanced documentary. 20

Cold Case Hammarskjold Disturbing yet oddly delightful documentary may blow your mind. 21

 Angel Has Fallen An action movie with half a brain and no fun whatsoever. 22

Hidden treasure

on the Mall

Weekend

THE WASHINGTON POST GOINGOUTGUIDE.COM FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019

In “On Becoming a God

in Central Florida,”

Kirsten Dunst plays a

widow whose alcoholic

hustler of a husband left

her in a financial hole.

sings to a photo of actress Jodie Foster.

Hinckley, for those in need of a reminder,

tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan, and

Sondheim pairs him with Squeaky From-

me (a divine Rachel Zampelli), would-be

assassin of Gerald Ford, for the delusion-

SEE THEATER ON C3

Ian McEuen, right, plays Giuseppe

Zangara, who tried to kill Franklin D.

Roosevelt. In background, from left,

are Christopher Richardson, Maria

Rizzo, Nova Y. Payton, Christopher

Mueller and Jimmy Mavrikes.

SARAH SILBIGER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Former White House press secretary
Sarah Sanders will make her Fox News
debut on Sept. 6, the network said.

The Sunshine State’s shady side