XPost: alt.books, alt.gossip.non-celebrities, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: dumper@useless.biz   
      
   New York   
    —   
   The news that Olivia Nuzzi had a book coming out was, in political and   
   journalistic circles, the sensation of the fall season.   
      
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   In October of 2024, Nuzzi had lost her post at New York Magazine, where   
   she’d been a star profiler of politicians, when it turned out she had been   
   having an affair (passionate, but purportedly never physically   
   consummated) with one of her profile subjects: the independent   
   presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.   
      
   Afterward, Kennedy went on to become the secretary of Health and Human   
   Services for Donald Trump, while Nuzzi went into what journalistic cliche   
   and short attention spans decided to call “exile.”   
      
   Eleven months later, she was back: announced by Vanity Fair as the   
   magazine’s new West Coast editor. Less than a month after that, she was in   
   The New York Times, on the receiving end of a celebrity profile, complete   
   with romantic, black-and-white visuals of her driving through California   
   in a convertible, blonde hair blowing in the wind — and with the word that   
   she had turned her career-upending romance into a memoir, “American   
   Canto,” coming soon.   
      
   Then came an excerpt of the book in Vanity Fair, followed by a furious   
   serialized barrage of Substack blogging from her scorned ex-fiancé and   
   fellow political reporter, Ryan Lizza, accusing her of even more   
   journalistic and sexual transgressions, all of which was met with the   
   anticipation and discourse once reserved for Sunday night prestige cable   
   programming. (Lizza was previously an on-air contributor to CNN.)   
      
   On Tuesday, the book arrived in stores. At lunchtime, in the Midtown   
   Manhattan nexus of media and publishing, interest in Nuzzi’s story seemed   
   more muted. The Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue had seven copies tucked   
   into a “New & Notable” rack next to the escalator, below Malala   
   Yousafzai’s “Finding My Way.” Not many had sold so far, a store employee   
   said.   
      
   A few blocks uptown, at a branch of the local independent chain McNally   
   Jackson Books, a few volumes lay on a table of new and noteworthy   
   nonfiction near the front of the store. No one was lining up to get them,   
   or even browsing. Bookseller Alex Howe told CNN around 3 p.m. that though   
   the store had procured “several dozen” copies, not a single one had yet   
   sold — a figure he said was surprising, considering how many people in   
   media and publishing work in the area.   
      
   “We ordered a lot and so far, people have not been beating down the door,”   
   Howe said. “I’m not sure where we’re gonna put them because right now,   
   supply is outpacing demand.” (A manager at McNally Jackson noted that Howe   
   was speaking only in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the   
   store.)   
      
   Political memoirs have seen mixed success at the bookstore this year.   
   While Kamala Harris’ “107 Days” was displayed on a shelf with other   
   bestsellers, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman’s “Unfettered” had been a   
   “flop,” per store staff.   
      
   In fairness, it was a slow day. The release of “American Canto” coincided   
   with a major winter storm in the Northeast, which was forecast to bring   
   heavy snow and sleet at midday, though all Manhattan saw was cold rain.   
   Still, it may have prompted otherwise eager readers to stay home.   
      
   Online sales haven’t been particularly frenzied either, though. By   
   Wednesday morning, the hardcover edition of “American Canto” ranked No.   
   6,709 on Amazon’s bestseller list, and commentators on social media deemed   
   early numbers disappointing. After a brief Tuesday morning appearance at   
   No. 1 in Amazon’s narrowcast “Journalist Biographies” category, it slipped   
   to No. 3 the following day, behind Cameron Crowe’s “The Uncool: A Memoir”   
   and Margaret Atwood’s “Book of Lives.”   
      
   As of this writing, there were 33 people total waiting for the four   
   electronic copies in circulation at the Brooklyn Public Library. As with   
   Lizza’s paywalled installments of his side of the story, which circulated   
   widely via pdf and email among journalists reluctant to invest   
   subscription money in the scandal, there appeared to be a gap between how   
   ready people were to read the story and how ready they were to pay to read   
   it.   
      
   Despite the apparent lack of shopper interest, the Nuzzi saga was an   
   animating subject for McNally staff, who were discussing her new release   
   among themselves before this reporter approached them. One employee   
   mentioned she had been heavily invested in the drama, dissecting the turn   
   of events with everyone from her friends to her uncle.   
      
   Howe said he had also followed Nuzzi’s writing and reporting over the   
   years and likened his fascination with the latest salacious scandal   
   involving RFK Jr. to “a car crash on the highway where I feel curious and   
   also bad for them.” Though he said he probably won’t read “American   
   Canto,” he wished her well.   
      
   “If it turns out to be something that didn’t work out, she at least tried   
   something that’s really hard for any author, regardless of whether you’re   
   a reporter or whatever else,” he said, adding, “It can be hard to compete   
   with the likes of Britney Spears and Emily Henry for attention and sales.”   
      
   Comments:   
      
   cnn-user-4l1vlo   
   12 hours ago   
      
   Probably everyone’s hoping the book will flop and she’ll go away and leave   
   us in peace.   
      
   cnn-user-mx5sqf   
   13 hours ago   
      
   Part of her problem is she looks like Max Headroom in drag, at least in   
   the article's photo.   
      
   https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/03/us/olivia-nuzzi-american-canto-release-cec   
      
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