The Week of Labash continues

I’m going to keep posting these until someone writes in the comments that they’ve purchased a copy of Matt Labash’s Fly Fishing with Darth Vader. So, you know, you better get on it.

The latest dazzling review comes from Roll Call newspaper, in which the reviewer writes that

Labash taps his subjects for all they’re worth. He has the gift, it seems, of endearing himself to his interviewees enough to make them candidly comfortable. Then again, sometimes, as with “political hitman” Roger Stone, Labash just tries to get them drunk, a trick Stone must have been accustomed to because he, in turn, bribes the waiter to bring him water with an olive in a martini glass. But whatever the method, it works. Labash uncovers rare glimpses into the actual humanity of the public personas whose image and message are usually so tightly controlled.

This is an underrated skill, one not often seen in D.C.: Getting people off message and encouraging them to open up is a tough thing to do. But Labash excels at it. You’d know that if you’d bought his book. Which you should do right now.