New York
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n The news that Olivia Nuzzi had a book coming out was, in political and journalistic circles, the sensation of the fall season.\n <\/p>\n
\n In October of 2024, Nuzzi had lost her post<\/a> at New York Magazine, where she\u2019d 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.\n <\/p>\n \n 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 \u201cexile.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Eleven months later, she was back: announced by Vanity Fair as the magazine\u2019s new West Coast editor. Less than a month after that, she was in The New York Times<\/a>, 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 \u2014 and with the word that she had turned her career-upending romance into a memoir, \u201cAmerican Canto,\u201d coming soon.\n <\/p>\n \n Then came an excerpt of the book in Vanity Fair<\/a>, followed by a furious serialized barrage of Substack blogging from her scorned ex-fianc\u00e9 and fellow political reporter, Ryan Lizza<\/a>, 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.)\n <\/p>\n \n On Tuesday, the book arrived in stores. At lunchtime, in the Midtown Manhattan nexus of media and publishing, interest in Nuzzi\u2019s story seemed more muted. The Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue had seven copies tucked into a \u201cNew & Notable\u201d rack next to the escalator, below Malala Yousafzai\u2019s \u201cFinding My Way.\u201d Not many had sold so far, a store employee said.\n <\/p>\n \n 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 \u201cseveral dozen\u201d copies, not a single one had yet sold \u2014 a figure he said was surprising, considering how many people in media and publishing work in the area.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe ordered a lot and so far, people have not been beating down the door,\u201d Howe said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure where we\u2019re gonna put them because right now, supply is outpacing demand.\u201d (A manager at McNally Jackson noted that Howe was speaking only in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the store.)\n <\/p>\n \n Political memoirs have seen mixed success at the bookstore this year. While Kamala Harris\u2019 \u201c107 Days\u201d was displayed on a shelf with other bestsellers, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman\u2019s \u201cUnfettered\u201d had been a \u201cflop,\u201d per store staff.\n <\/p>\n \n In fairness, it was a slow day. The release of \u201cAmerican Canto\u201d 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.\n <\/p>\n