Vice President JD Vance released his second memoir this month, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” a book chronicling his spiritual journey that the Guardian opinion columnist Arwa Mahdawi said has drawn criticism for its timing and faced “unusual review activity” on major platforms.
Amazon restricted reviews of the book to verified purchasers because of “unusual review activity,” Mahdawi wrote Tuesday. Goodreads, which is owned by Amazon, suspended reviews entirely. Mahdawi noted that Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, listed the book as “read” on her Goodreads account.
Appearing on The View to promote the book, Vance initially asked hosts to focus on the memoir, saying, “Let’s talk about the book – I’m here to sell books,” according to Mahdawi. The moderator, Whoopi Goldberg, said the hosts would get to the book after first discussing politics.
After the appearance, Vance joked to reporters that he had gained “great experience in very hostile negotiations” from being on the show, Mahdawi reported.
On Friday, Vance appeared on Fox News, where he expressed frustration with diplomatic protocols related to the ongoing Iran talks. “I’ve gotta be honest with you – I don’t really understand these things,” Mahdawi quoted Vance as saying. He added that he was trying to be respectful and, given his position over the previous year and a half, suddenly had to “care about diplomatic protocols.”
President Trump has said the world is on the brink of a war-instigated “economic catastrophe,” Mahdawi noted in the column.
In the memoir, Vance describes his earlier comment about “childless cat ladies” as “one of the dumbest things [he] ever said,” Mahdawi wrote. The column also observed that the book mentions the word “babies” 33 times, reflecting Vance’s continued focus on falling birthrates.
Mahdawi’s column noted that Vance’s two book titles appear to echo works by the Black feminist writer bell hooks, who wrote “Appalachian Elegy” and “Communion: The Female Search For Love.”