“American Canto” by Olivia Nuzzi is a polarizing political memoir that most mainstream reviewers consider ambitious but seriously flawed in execution and focus. It mixes reportage about the Trump and RFK Jr. era with lyrical, highly self-conscious memoir, and many critics argue that the surrounding scandal is more compelling than the book itself.

What the book is about

  • The book blends personal narrative with reflections on the Trump years, political violence, media, and the warping of American public life.
  • Nuzzi frames it as a story about life in contemporary America, love, and a kind of patriotic anguish, explicitly invoking Dante and epic-poem ambitions.
  • Despite public expectations, reviewers note it is not a straightforward Trump book or a tell‑all about RFK Jr., but more a collage of scenes, meditations, and self‑portraiture.

Critical reception at a glance

Many major outlets have been sharply negative, with a few acknowledging flashes of talent.

  • The Guardian calls it “insufferable filler” that sidesteps the real ethical and political questions raised by the RFK Jr. affair and the press‑politician boundary.
  • A New Yorker review says the scandal‑filled rollout around the book was far more interesting than the text itself, describing the style as self-serious and Didion‑esque without Didion’s control.
  • An aggregate at Bookmarks rates it overall as “Pan,” with 11 reviews skewing heavily negative and criticizing it as wafty, unfocused, and overly solemn.
  • Some critics argue that when Nuzzi leans hardest into “literary” prose, the syntax becomes tortured and “aggressively awful,” comparing it to a muddled Didion pastiche.

Style and structure

  • Reviewers describe the style as dense, metaphor-heavy, and often meandering, with long, abstract passages that drift away from the central narrative.
  • There are sequences about geology, historical figures, and aphoristic riffs that seem designed to prove her seriousness more than to advance a clear story.
  • Multiple critics point out that events readers are most curious about (her relationship with RFK Jr., her role as a political reporter, questions of power and consent) are treated obliquely or under‑examined.

Forum and online discussion vibes

Outside formal reviews, online discussion has leaned mocking and incredulous, though often with a sense that there is real ability buried under the excess.

  • Commenters and newsletter writers have pulled out particularly strange sentences and metaphors as viral objects of ridicule, treating the prose as unintentionally comic.
  • Some writing-focused commentators offer “tough‑love” craft notes, arguing that the book hides behind metaphor instead of delivering concrete scenes and accountability.
  • A recurring theme in forums is frustration that a potentially important story about media ethics and power becomes an aestheticized, hazy self‑mythologizing text.

Should you read “American Canto”?

Whether it’s worth your time depends on what you want:

  • If you’re curious about the media‑politics ecosystem, scandal culture, and are tolerant of experimental, self-conscious memoirs, you might find its failures interesting in themselves.
  • If you’re looking for a clear, reported account of RFK Jr., Trump, or media ethics, most reviewers say you will be disappointed by how little direct, concrete reckoning the book offers.
  • Even many harsh reviews note that Nuzzi can write vivid scenes and suggest that a tighter, more self‑interrogating version of this story could have been genuinely compelling.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.