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400 Days | Chetan Bhagat | Book Review

The rule of staying peacefully with parents is to keep the sarcasm minimal. Chetan Bhagat, 400 days

The release of Chetan Bhagat’s books is always marked by a frenzy. The hype of the release, the excitement amongst the readers, the buzz in the blogging and booktubing world – all of a sudden there is a new leash of energy in bookish circles. 

Chetan Bhagat might not be the favorite of critics, he certainly is the favorite of the industry. For who doesn’t like an author whose books sell like hotcakes. And when there is demand for his books, there is demand for its reviews as well.

So, falling in line with the expectation of our readers, I too bought myself a copy and quickly sat down to read it. Read on to know my review of Chetan Bhagat’s latest book, 400 days.

What to expect?

Expect a book that is much like the other recent books by the author. Expect a book that is an effortless read; one that can be easily read in a sitting or two. Expect a medium-length read (350 pages approx.) that combines romance, humour, family drama, and mystery in equal doses. 

Is this book different?

The thousand buck question that everyone wants to ask is if this book is different? 

Has Chetan done something different this time? 

Sadly, the answer is NO.

For me what ‘ spelled different’  in Chetan’s recent writing career were 2 books – 1) One Indian Girl – because it was written from a woman’s perspective and 2) The Girl in Room 105 – because it saw Chetan venturing into a different genre. 

To be honest, between the three books – The Girl in Room 105 , One Arranged Murder , and 400 Days, the latest turned out to be my least favourite.

Who can read?

The language is simple and beginner-friendly and as such, it is a book that can be picked up by all levels of readers. Even those beginning to read English will be able to read and enjoy the book.

Let’s talk about the storyline

Keshav and Sourabh are amateur detectives  who run a part-time detective agency. While Sourabh is employed in a computer security company, Keshav is preparing for the UPSC exams. These are the same characters with whom the readers were acquainted in Chetan’s previous books The Girl in Room 105 and One Arranged Murder .

There isn’t much happening in both their lives. But all that changes upon the entry of Alia Arora, who is Keshav’s neighbor, an ex-model, and a mother of two. With her hazel green eyes, a head full of luscious brown curls, she is what one would call ‘ drop-dead gorgeous ‘.

Though Keshav simply can’t take his eyes off her face, she comes to Keshav with a high-profile case. (and trust me, this play of words is not my invention!)

Nine months ago, Alia’s daughter Siya, just shy of celebrating her thirteenth birthday, was taken away from her grandparents’ home  in the dead of the night. The Aroras and the police tried their level best to find Siya, but sadly that wasn’t meant to be. 

After no development for weeks on end, the police decided to file the case as cold and even the Aroras gave up hope. 

Except for one person. 

Her mother Alia had never stopped looking, and now she wants Keshav to take up the case.

Will Siya ever be found?

Can Keshav and Sourabh solve this kidnapping?

Will Keshav move past his attraction for Alia?

How good or bad are the characters?

The characters are mediocre at best. Apart from Keshav and Saurabh, whom we are already invested in because of the previous two books, there is no one else who leaves a lasting impression on the reader. Alia has been given a lot of attention and importance in the story. But to me, her character felt inadequate and shallow.

The plot as it exists

The plot is pretty much non-existent. It is quite linear, and a huge part of the book is predictable. There are not enough plot twists to hook the reader.

The writing style 

The writing makes good use of sarcasm and humour. This is the part that I enjoyed the most, where the comic elements lent the book a light-hearted vibe. 

What could be better?

The romance. There was simply no need for it. It was shallow and cliché, not to mention unrealistic. Why does it feel that Chetan has invented a formula and is going to continue with it in his future books too?

A mystery that hardly existed

Technically, the book cannot be called a mystery. There is a generous dose of drama, romance, and comedy that has been given much more importance and space than the mystery element. 

There are no edge-of-the-seat thriller vibes either. At no point in time, the reader feels in grip of the mystery. And while the reader does feel inclined to turn those pages, it isn’t because of the mystery quotient.

Why it reminds me of Alex Lake’s Seven Days?

Call it coincidence or luck, the very book I finished reading before 400 days was Seven Days by Alex Lake . Incidentally, the latter plotline was eerily similar to that of 400 days. While Seven Days didn’t have that amount of drama, it surely came with a generous amount of mystery and thrill.

Is the climax good enough?

The climax is okay. It is neither great nor bad, and some aspects of the book can be guessed way before the end.

Will it make for a good screen adaptation?

Yes, given the wholesome package that conventional Bollywood movies seek, the book would make for a good screen adaptation. Not that it matters much, but even some of the character names in the book share their name with Bollywood star kids.

Is the book entertaining?

It is a decent entertainer. 

The final verdict

Can be picked as a one-time read.

In the end, 400 days is yet another one-time read delivered by the author. Though effortless to read, it does not offer anything unique to the reader.

Pick the book if

• You are a Chetan Bhagat fan.
• You have previously enjoyed his works.
• You are a beginner-level reader .
• You are looking for a packaged entertainer.

Skip the book if

• You are looking for something unique .
• You are looking for a good and engaging mystery .
• You are looking for a serious read.
• You are a regular or voracious reader.
• You have never been a Chetan Bhagat fan.

Can’t wait to read it? Buy your copy of 400 days by Chetan Bhagat using the link below.

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About the Author

Sankalpita singh.

Meet Sankalpita, the bookworm extraordinaire! With an insatiable appetite for reading (over 100 books annually!), she started her blog, bookGeeks, in 2013. Now India's top-tier book blog, it attracts 700,000 monthly readers. She also runs a popular YouTube channel, inspiring a passion for Indian literature in all ages. Her ultimate goal? "To serve a nation through literature." With a passion for Indian literature, she's on a mission to ignite the reading spark in both kids and grown-ups alike.

Check latest articles from this author:

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‘400 Days’: Despite its clichéd ingredients, Chetan Bhagat’s new novel is his most readable yet

Stock characters and stock relationships, but the writing has matured..

Before I started writing this review, I watched Chetan Bhagat’s comedy special on One Mic Stand. He made a lot of fun of himself, which didn’t surprise me, but he made me laugh a couple of times, which did.

He also compared himself to Shakespeare (“Ask him, was Shakespeare looked down upon in his time? And he was.”). I have thoughts about that one.

400 Days, his latest novel, juggles several plot lines (told you he’s got better) of varying intensity – there’s the standard Bhagat-style love story about awkward dudes with limited prospects (professional and social) falling for porcelain-perfect women way out of their leagues; there’s our hero’s sidekick’s fitness journey; and at centre stage there’s the whodunnit – the Siya Arora missing child case.

Same characters

The police investigation having run its course with no results, Siya’s desperate mother Alia hears about some guy who runs a sort of part-time private investigation agency from his parents’ flat and seems to think something along the lines of, “Hey, maybe Some Guy the Private Eye can help out, what do we have to lose?” She’s filthy rich, for context. Also, in her defence, her twelve-year-old daughter is missing without a trace and I’m sure that does a number on a person.

In many ways 400 Days runs along familiar beats. The hero is, well, a standard Bhagat hero. Our Chetan clearly has – has had – a thing for underdogs who get the girl, which is fine, everyone likes underdogs and I am told there are also plenty of girl-getting enthusiasts out there. But even I, whose Bhagat library up until now consisted of about 2.5 books, recognised that all of his underdogs are the same kind of underdogs.

We meet Keshav – with middling professional prospects – when he’s failing to prepare or preparing to fail (borrowing a dad joke because reading Bhagat is weirdly exhausting) for the UPSC exam. He’s not gifted socially, either, and so little is said about the looks department that I am forced to assume the worst. Okay, that was an original joke.

We do know he’s reasonably fit and even has abs, courtesy envious references from his sidekick Saurabh “Golu” Maheshwari. Golu fits the Bhagat Hero mould even more squarely, in case you were wondering, and has the fat jokes hurled at him all the time to prove it.

Anyway, back to our scene. Keshav then leaves the room to have dinner with Indian Mom, Indian Dad, and their apathetic marriage, all of whose purpose in this novel is mostly to be conservative and naggy, and racist at south Indians with zero provocation. The variety is mostly in whether they’re complaining about marriage and jobs or whether they’re complaining about money and other people.

In fact, there are at two sets of Indian Mom and Dad in this novel, both entirely indistinguishable from each other - one of them also doubles up as an Indian Mother-In-Law, yes, exactly that kind. Multiple characters actually speculate she might be guilty of child abduction, just because the child in question was her daughter-in-law’s!

I won’t say whether or not they’re right in their suspicions, just that Durga Arora seems so TV-serial evil at times that it’s not even that far-fetched as an allegation. No doubt she also runs over stray kittens and plants cocaine on minors in her free time. This overwrought saas-bahu dynamic at least is actually lampshaded a few times by other characters, though, so at least it’s self-aware.

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Book Reviews, Articles and Original Short Stories

Saturday 27 November 2021

• Book Review: 400 Days by Chetan Bhagat

Some things just don’t change. Or, rather, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose . The more Chetan Bhagat changes, the more he remains the same.

Chetan Bhagat is good at connecting with middle-class, tier 2 town India. His plots are always fundamentally good and usually revolve around an issue that today’s Indian youth can connect with. As a story teller, he is decent, taking time to slowly build up his characters, though I have always found that there is usually a surfeit of information about the characters that impairs the main story itself.

400 Days follows the usual Chetan Bhagat formula. There’s a hero who’s down to earth and constantly tussling with his parents, especially his father. Keshav is studying for the civil services – he’s targeting the IPS, while at the same time, he runs a detective agency. Keshav’s parents want him to ditch the detective agency, clear the civil services and get married, not necessarily in that order.   Keshav has a side-kick, Saurabh, aka Golu, who is, as his nickname suggests, fat and a whiz with software and related matters.   He is also quite dumb in matters of health and fitness and goes to the extent of swallowing cotton soaked in orange juice to lose weight.

In comes Alia, beautiful, married, mother of two, but still rather young – you see, she got married at eighteen. Alia is in distress, her elder daughter has gone missing, possibly abducted and pleads with Detective Keshav to take on the case.  As is common in Bhagat novels, Alia is half-south Indian. 

Bhagat doesn’t do stereotypes in half measures and these are not restricted to the Punjabis, Malayalees and Rajasthanis.   Police officers in Gurugram also bear the brunt of Bhagat’s stereotypical wrath. As soon as Siya’s parents report the disappearance of their twelve year old daughter, the cops tell the parents that she might have run away with a grown-up man. Alia’s in-laws are more worried about the bad publicity for the family than that their grand-daughter is missing. The mother-in-law is really nasty. She resents that Alia has given the family two daughters and no sons and goes to the extent of organising a ‘ Pishachini nazar utaar puja ’.

Keshav is always on the moral high-ground. When after a trip to Kerala, his parents tell him, ‘ here, take another roti. Must’ve been eating only rice in Kerala. Have proper food ,’ he wants to shout back that even rice was proper food. He doesn’t actually shout back though.

However, despite all these minor pinpricks, 400 Days is a good read, or to use Bhagat’s language, paisa-vasoool. Bhagat’s English is clean and straight, no doubt, the result of some heavy duty editing and makes the digestion of the story easy and simple.

Spoilers ahead

Alia, an ex-model, the mother of the missing twelve-year old Siya, is in an unhappy marriage, a fact which she doesn’t hide from Keshav. Not just that, she desires him, practically swoons over him and appropriates him, despite Keshav’s misgivings. I just didn’t see any chemistry between Keshav and Alia, and found it hard to absorb how a mother whose daughter has gone missing would have a physical relationship with the detective she has hired to find her daughter, pretty much as soon as they meet.

More spoilers

The biggest flaw in 400 Days is that, like many crime novels, Bhagat takes his readers on more than one wild goose chase. One is led to believe that the culprit is about to be bought to book and then, no, its not the case. Then another chase, which goes on almost till the end of the book and the reader is convinced that X and Y are the criminals and suddenly, Z is revealed to be the villain. Some writers do this wild-goose-chase thing well. Bhagat doesn't. 

A few more spoilers

Detection of Z is not the result of painstaking detective work, but due to a sudden breaking wave, from out of nowhere, a eureka moment which is inexplicable and mildly annoying.

Final (non) spoiler

Does Keshav get Alia? Who was the villain who abducted Siya? How exactly do Keshav and Saurabh solve the crime? Does Keshav get into the civil services? I’m sorry, I’m not going to reveal answers to these questions. You’ll have to read the eminently readable 400 Days to find out for yourself.

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400 Days | Chetan Bhagat | Book Review | Indian Mystery Thriller Book

400 Days by Chetan Bhagat is the latest Indian Mystery Thriller from India’s highest-selling author. Featuring Keshav and Saurabh, the Detective duo from “ The Girl in Room 105 ” and “ One Arranged Murder “, this time they have to find a missing young girl. Read the book summary, genre, publication date, buying links, and book review of 400 Days by Chetan Bhagat in this post below.

About 400 Days by Chetan Bhagat:

No. of Pages: 352

Publication Date: 8th October 2021 (Westland)

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Indian Fiction, Crime Fiction, Romantic Suspense

Can be read as a standalone? Yes

Buy From: AMAZON

400 Days by Chetan Bhagat Book Review:

About the plot:.

12-year-old Siya has been missing nine months. It’s a cold case, but Keshav wants to help her mother, Alia, who refuses to give up. Welcome to  400 Days ―a mystery and romance story like no other. “ 400 Days by Chetan Bhagat

Keshav Rajpurohit and his best friend, Saurabh started a Detective Agency called “Z Detectives” and have solved several high-profile cases in the past. But with the lockdown, the cases are few but this changes when a woman from his society approaches Keshav one day. She wants to hire him to solve the kidnapping of her twelve year old daughter.

A high-profile missing persons case that ran on all media outlets nine months ago, it is now a closed case. Police and even her family believes Siya to be dead but her mother, Alia is determined to keep searching for her daughter. With no clues, no suspects and no leads, will Keshav and Saurabh be able to find Siya?

Is she still alive?

Also is the attraction Keshav feels towards Alia a start to something tangible?

400 Days by Chetan Bhagat Review:

A new book release from Chetan Bhagat is a big event. His books are widely read in India and are almost guaranteed bestsellers. And despite not having liked his romances much except for “ 2 States “, I have enjoyed his mystery suspense books “ The Girl in Room 105 ” and “ One Arranged Murder “. So, when I heard about his upcoming mystery thriller 400 Days , I knew I had to read and review it.

Characterisation:

Keshav and Saurabh are known characters readers are invested in. It was fun to see them move ahead in life. Though Saurabh has far and fewer appearances in this book, still his presence is no less entertaining.

Keshav still has personal and romantic woes. He feels his parents are disappointed in him and his romantic life is non-existent. When Alia comes in his life, he fights the attraction but as is his track record falls victim to it.

Alia’s character has been given too much coverage in this book and her character is a mix bag. As a mother, her devotion and determination to find her kid will have tears in your eyes. But as a woman, she falls short. She is shallow in her ideals, losing interest in her marriage, always feeling a victim of circumstance. 

The other characters too don’t leave a lasting impression. The Arora family is a mix of blind superstition, business-over-family, narrow minded, discriminating, and not a pleasant family to know in all especially Alia’s mother-in-law!

The only character I liked apart from the already known Keshav and Saurabh duo was Siya’s younger sister, Suhana. Her childish antics and genuine confusion and sadness for her missing sister is so touching.

Plot and storytelling:

The premise of the story is intriguing and the storytelling engaging. However, the pace is slow until the last few chapters when it suddenly takes a sprint to reach a hurried closure. The clues and red herrings are all placed expertly but several angles are left hanging as the story jumps to something new.

The solution came suddenly and everything that had seemed so out of reach was tied up neatly. While the end is a hurried yet happy one, the author has touched serious issues like social media addiction in children, pedophiles targeting unsuspecting kids, lack of parental guidance, and effect of domestic discord on a child’s psych which is noteworthy.

Conclusion:

All in all, 400 Days by Chetan Bhagat is a one-time read and will engage you for the first time. The language is simple and the settings relatable especially to Indian readers. So, if you are looking for a decent mystery then this is the book for you. If you are a seasoned mystery/thriller reader then this may disappoint you because there is nothing different here. The previous two mysteries by Chetan Bhagat are definitely better than this one.

3.5 out of 5 stars to 400 Days and Njkinny recommends it to all readers looking for a quick timepass mystery.

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• Chetan Bhagat reinvents himself in '400 Days'

Chetan Bhagat reinvents himself in '400 Days'

Visual Stories

400 Days: Chetan Bhagat’s Book Review

A review with no spoilers – 400 Days

Chetan Bhagat has been one of the most popular writers of our country in the recent times. Until now he has written several books, but the one which made him popular was the book named “2States”. From then onwards, there has always been expectations from readers that every now and then he writes something that can repeat the experience that 2 States gave to us. But we all know that he has not been among the good list of the critics till now. Even so, his books have always tried to touch upon a varied strata of emotions or entertainment factors, which has been entertaining for many of his fans.

But there is always a factor of creating new ideas or imaginations that can give us all a story to talk about. It does also happen that when a new book is released by a writer, the initial response of the book in the first few months can lay a foundation for the further journey of the writer along with the characters which he has created from his thought process.

Now, taking a note of his latest book – 400 Days, he has been able to present to us a book of 352 pages and the publication house has been Westland Publication.

The Rough Idea of Story

This book is about the abduction of a girl named Siya. The case of the abducted girl is given to the private detectives named Keshav and Sourabh. In the beginning, the story is a bit relaxed and also engaging at the same time as the characters are introduced in a steady manner.

Keshav and Sourabh run a private detective agency as a part-time job. Life is going at a slow pace with not much to talk about in their day to day lives. Keshav is preparing for the UPSC and Sourabh is working at a computer security company as a full- time job. But suddenly Alia arrives into their lives with a case of abduction to solve. She has been through enough because of the incident involving her daughter and now has hopes relying only on the two detectives present in front of her.

It has been nine months since Siyawas taken away from her, just before the time her daughter was going to turn thirteen. The entire Arora family along with the Police have been unable to find her since then.

In the beginning, the mother of the abducted girl tries her level best along with the Policeto get hold of her 12-year-old daughter but the efforts go in vain. As the story progresses, Aliaenters into a relationship with the better of the two detectives. Ultimately, it results in the detective being also getting attached to the case emotionally.

In the end, the climax of the story is a bit shocking. So, the ending of the story, can be a bit disappointing for some of the readers.

The social-matter

All in all, this thriller category of a story has some of the things which are shown as a mirror image of the society taking into account the thinking of the people about the matters like the idea of a divorce. Then it’s also said that in spite of numerous efforts,there has been a loss of hope for Alia and her family. Then, there are also topics which the writer has touched upon in the story like the environment of house which can have a bad impact on the nature of a child. The story also tries to simply show the extramarital affair without complexing things too much. It also tries to depict the effects of a toxic relationship on a person’s mind and the age-old conflicting relation of a wife and her mother-in-law. Inside all this mess, the writer also tries to show the confusing atmosphere for a man when he has to choose between his wife and mother.

On another bright side, there has also been depiction of the demerits of the internet world especially from the social media point of view.

It is a fact that Chetan’s books have been wildly popular among the film makers from the film industry of our country – Bollywood . It is depicted from the fact that two of his books have been converted into full length movies in the past by some of the prominent film makers and the two movies also have some of the good actors of the Hindi film industry.

So, the story tries to show various problems of the society. It depicts the facts in a simple manner. But from a prospective of a thriller story admirer, it is difficult to predict that whether the book will be classic or not from Chetan Bhagat. But it is definitely worth giving a try.

Considering his previous books, it has been a great attempt from him to entertain us with an exploration of the thriller genre which has a high fan following among the avid book readers not only in India but all across the globe. 

By:  Raunak Jha

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Book Review:  400 Days by Chetan Bhagat

Book – 400 days, author – chetan bhagat, genre – mystery cum romance.

400 days is the latest book by Chetan Bhagat that I recently read. It’s a good light read, and I finished it in two days.

The story is about a mother, Alia and her missing daughter. Her daughter Siya was kidnapped from her grandparents’ house just before her thirteenth birthday. Everyone, including the police, tried their best to look for her but to no avail. Eventually, everyone gives up, but the mother in her cannot. She wants to keep looking for her, so she approaches two amateur detectives, Keshav and Sourabh, to help her. The story revolves around the mystery of the missing girl and the attempts to rescue her. Added to this is the attraction that Keshav feels for the gorgeous Alia. He simply cannot take his eyes off her.

The book and its plot are quite predictable and expected: not much of a mystery there! There are no twists and turns to keep the reader hooked. The characters are also quite mediocre, with not much depth in them. But the book has its elements of humour and sarcasm, which make it light-hearted and enjoyable. I quite liked the character of Alia, who is grappling with several issues but manages to hold her own. Despite being a mother and a wife, she is a woman with an existence outside of these roles. Though I am not a great Chetan Bhagat fan, I like his books for their simple style of writing, something that you can relate to. All his books are effortless reads and, therefore, a great choice if you are new to reading or are looking for a quick read. Since his style is quite contemporary, young urban people can relate to it.

Also Read: Your Guide to Writing a Smart Book Review

The book is not a literary wonder, but the reader should know this before picking up this book. The author is not known for being a literary genius. Chetan Bhagat novels are contemporary and have a next-door appeal to them, and that’s the best part about them.

But even then, there could have been depth in the plot, and some unnecessary things could have been left out. For instance, the romantic angle was quite shallow and cliched. The story could have been related without it too.

Also Read: Daughters of War – Book Review

The Chetan Bhagat latest book didn’t seem like a mystery to me as it was supposed to be, but it was a good time pass.

You will enjoy the book if you have no expectations.

I would give it a rating of 3.5/ 5

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400 days by Chetan bhagat book review new book by chetan bhagat

Video review

2-year-old Siya has been missing nine months. It’s a cold case, but Keshav wants to help her mother, Alia, who refuses to give up. Welcome to  400 Days —a mystery and romance story like no other.

‘My daughter Siya was kidnapped. Nine months ago,’ Alia said.

The police had given up. They called it a cold case. Even the rest of her family had stopped searching.

Alia wouldn’t stop looking, though. She wanted to know if I could help her.

Hi, I am Keshav Rajpurohit and I am a disappointment to everyone around me. I live with my parents, who keep telling me how I should a) get married, b) focus on my IPS exams, c) meet more people and d) close my detective agency.

But Alia Arora, neighbour and ex-model, wanted my help. And I couldn’t take my eyes off her face … I mean, her case.

Welcome to  400 Days . A mystery and romance story like none other. An unputdownable tale of suspense, human relationships, love, friendship, the crazy world we live in and, above all, a mother’s determination to never give up.

From India’s highest-selling author comes a page-turner that will not only keep you glued to the story but also touch you deeply.

About the Author

Chetan Bhagat is the author of ten bestselling novels, which have sold over twelve million copies and have been translated into over twenty languages worldwide.

The New York Times  has called him ‘the biggest selling author in India’s history’.  Time  magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Fast Company USA named him one of the 100 most creative people in business worldwide.

Many of Chetan’s books have been adapted into films and were major Bollywood blockbusters. He is also a Filmfare award-winning screenplay writer.

Chetan writes columns for  The Times of India  and  Dainik Bhaskar,  which are among India’s most influential and widely read newspapers. He is also one of the country’s leading motivational speakers. He is active on various social media platforms, where his combined following runs into crores. Chetan went to college at IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, after which he worked in investment banking for a decade before quitting his job to become a full-time writer.

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Donald Trump’s Wild ‘Apprentice’ Behavior: Meltdowns on Set, a Shocking Nickname for an NBC Exec, an ‘Obsession’ with Debra Messing and More

By William Earl

William Earl

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Ramin Setoodeh’s new chronicle of Donald Trump and “ The Apprentice ” — titled “ Apprentice in Wonderland ” — has arrived in bookstores and is filled with juicy behind-the-scenes anecdotes from the former President’s long-running reality show. (Note: Setoodeh is the co-editor-in-chief of this publication).

Along with a fascinating narrative that shows how the NBC series led to Trump’s political career, as well as multiple new interviews between Trump and Setoodeh, there are countless details which add more context to the wild world of the reality juggernaut. See five of them below.

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“He thinks for a minute,” Silverman recalls of Trump. “And he goes, ‘I’m so glad a Jew is running the network again.’ And I said, ‘Woah! I could take that in two ways, but somehow coming from you, it’s a compliment.'”

Omarosa allegedly wanted to sleep with Piers Morgan for a “showmance “

“She is one of the most appalling human beings I ever met in my entire life,” Morgan says, claiming that Omarosa wanted to sleep with him — to put on a “showmance” for the viewers —  and then continued to falsely claim he was gay after he shut down her advances. “She would literally do anything if she felt it would keep her on the show and get ratings,” Morgan says.

Trump grew childlike while waiting to film scenes for “The Apprentice”

As time went on, he was finicky about having to wait at all on the set of “The Apprentice.” If he arrived and the cameras weren’t ready to shoot his scene, he’d storm off and return hours later, just to prove a point. To help track his whereabouts in real time, members of the show’s transportation team were instructed to trail Trump when he took his own car.

Easier said than done. As one driver explains, trying to follow Trump as he sped to his golf course at Briarcliff Manor was an occupational hazard. Trump would run red lights, stomping on the gas and leaving other cars in the dust.

Trump has an “obsession” with Debra Messing

Trump described meeting Messing one year at the NBC upfronts, in which he said she was fawning over him.

“She was so thankful,” Trump says. “She said, ‘I can’t thank you enough.’ Do you believe this? I’ve been watching her. And I’m saying, ‘She’d do anything for me.'” As he makes this claim, Trump’s words are lathered with a suggestive grease, similar in tone to his boasting about women finding him irresistible in the leaked “Access Hollywood” tape.

The next time we talk, Trump brings up Messing again, and he confirms so mething that he’d only dropped hints about in our last meeting. During the early years of “The Apprentice,” Trump even had a crush on “Will & Grace”‘s leading lady. Maybe that’s why he can’t quite shake the bitterness that now exists between them. A former president who can’t win over a star almost sounds like the premise of a corny romantic comedy, but for Trump, Messing’s rejection is still a sharp dagger to his heart. “This Debra Messing, who I always thought was quite attractive — not that it matters, of course…”

Trump knew about the affair between his son, Donald Jr., and Aubrey O’Day — but hasn’t heard her pop song about it

The Danity Kane singer famously had a fling with Don Jr. when she was on the fifth season of “The Celebrity Apprentice,” which Trump admitted he was aware of.

When I ask Trump about O’Day’s affair with Don Jr., he takes a long pause. “I had heard that, actually,” he says, blinking. “No, I had heard that.” Did he know that O’Day had written a song about Don Jr.? “I hadn’t heard the song. But I had heard that,” Trump says, confirming once again that he’s aware of the story about Don Jr. sleeping with one of the contestants on “The Celebrity Apprentice.”

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What Can’t You Say These Days?

In “The Indispensable Right,” Jonathan Turley argues that the First Amendment has been deeply compromised from the start.

A supporter speaks outside a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Orland, Fla., in 2019. Credit... Gerardo Mora/Getty Images

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Jeff Shesol is the author, most recently, of “Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War.”

• June 18, 2024
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THE INDISPENSABLE RIGHT: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, by Jonathan Turley

Conservative voices are being silenced. We know this because conservative voices are telling us so, insistently, on social media and cable news programs , in speeches by Supreme Court justices and on the grounds of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse . Casual observation might suggest otherwise — as does the data — but it has become an article of faith on the right that conservative viewpoints are being systematically suppressed, even criminalized.

It is true that many college campuses are inhospitable, at best, to speakers — including students — who challenge progressive beliefs. The conservative indictment, however, is more sweeping than that. In “The Indispensable Right,” the law professor and Fox News commentator Jonathan Turley lays out the charges unsparingly, accusing “the political left” of amassing “academic, corporate and government forces” in a campaign to cripple the First Amendment. The censors have the upper hand, he argues: Rioters are tarred as insurrectionists, unorthodox opinions are expunged from social media, medical experts are pilloried for questioning Covid protocols. “This,” he intones, “is the moment we have long feared would come.”

The end of days, by Turley’s accounting, was foretold at the start. The framers established the freedom of speech “in absolute terms” and then — the “original sin” — corrupted it by equating dissent with incitement in the Sedition Act of 1798, passed by Federalists in Congress and signed by John Adams.

Turley is hardly alone in depicting the act as a vindictive, partisan instrument or Thomas Jefferson as an inconstant champion of the free press. (“A few prosecutions of the most eminent offenders would have a wholesome effect,” he mused to an ally in 1803.) Neither is Turley the first to deplore the crackdowns on “disloyal” speech during times of national crisis , real or imagined.

Where he diverges from the consensus, and sharply, is in his portrayal of more than two centuries of free speech doctrine as a virtually unbroken betrayal of first principles. “Free speech demands bright lines,” Turley proclaims. In their place we have “trade-offs and concessions.”

The tests and distinctions of First Amendment law — the heightened protection of political speech relative to “low-value” forms of expression like obscenity; the balancing of free speech with other interests like privacy or public safety — are anathema to Turley. He views these as a cynical game, rationales for repression. The First Amendment, he says, is “objective” in its meaning and defines speech as he does: as an instrument of self-actualization. “Free speech is not about perfecting democracy,” he writes, “it is about perfecting ourselves.”

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WWDC24 Highlights

Apple Reveals Apple Intelligence

iOS 18 Makes iPhone More Personal and Intelligent Than Ever

iPadOS 18 Takes iPad to the Next Level

macOS Sequoia Brings New Ways of Working and Transformative Intelligence to Mac

watchOS 11 Offers Powerful Health and Fitness Insights, and More Personalization

visionOS 2 Brings New Spatial Computing Experiences to Apple Vision Pro

Home and Audio Updates Elevate Entertainment and Bring More Convenience

Text of this article

June 10, 2024

Relive the biggest moments from WWDC24

Today Apple kicked off its 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference, revealing groundbreaking new technologies and features during a keynote that was live-streamed from Apple Park to millions around the world. During the weeklong event, developers and students will have unique access to Apple experts, as well as insight into new tools, frameworks, and features to help elevate their apps and games.

This year’s keynote revealed Apple Intelligence , the personal intelligence system that combines the power of generative models with users’ personal context — at the core of iPhone, iPad, and Mac to deliver intelligence that’s incredibly useful and relevant. Major updates also come to iOS 18 , iPadOS 18 , macOS Sequoia , and watchOS 11 , including the biggest-ever redesign of the Photos app, game-changing productivity tools, and new ways for users to express themselves and customize their devices. visionOS 2 brings powerful new ways to interact with Apple Vision Pro and exciting updates to spatial photos and Mac Virtual Display, and tvOS 18 infuses useful information in Apple TV+ films and shows on users’ biggest screen in the home.

Beginning this month, Apple Vision Pro is also coming to more countries and regions, including China mainland, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and next month will come to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K.

Apple Intelligence harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from users’ personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. A cornerstone of Apple Intelligence is on-device processing, which delivers personal intelligence without collecting users’ data. Private Cloud Compute sets a new standard for privacy in AI, with the ability to flex and scale computational capacity between on-device processing, and larger, server-based models that run on dedicated Apple silicon servers.

With iOS 18 , users will now be able to arrange apps and widgets in any open space on the Home Screen, customize the buttons at the bottom of the Lock Screen, and quickly access more controls in Control Center. With the biggest redesign ever of the Photos app, photo libraries are automatically organized in a new single view in Photos, and helpful new collections keep favorites easily accessible. All-new text effects come to iMessage, amplifying any letter, word, phrase, or emoji with dynamic, animated appearances to bring conversations to life. Users can also now communicate over satellite in the Messages app, even when a cellular or Wi-Fi connection isn’t available.

With iPadOS 18 , the iPad experience is more versatile and intelligent than ever with new features and apps designed for Apple Pencil. The Calculator app comes to iPad with Math Notes, which allows users to type or write out mathematical expressions and see them instantly solved in their own handwriting. New handwriting tools in Notes including Smart Script make handwritten notes more fluid, flexible, and easier to read.

With macOS Sequoia , Continuity between iPhone and Mac gets better than ever with iPhone Mirroring, enabling full access to and control of iPhone directly from Mac. Safari gets another big update with the new Highlights feature for effortless information discovery on webpages while browsing. Gaming is even more immersive with Personalized Spatial Audio that puts players in the middle of the action like never before. And Apple Intelligence unlocks new ways for Mac users to enhance their writing and communicate more effectively, create playful images in seconds, and more. Apple Intelligence takes full advantage of the power of Apple silicon and its Neural Engine, and will be supported by every Mac with an M-series chip.

watchOS 11 offers breakthrough insights into users’ health and fitness, and more personalization than ever. The new Vitals app surfaces key health metrics and context, the ability to measure training load offers a game-changing new experience when working out, and the popular Activity rings are even more customizable. The Smart Stack and Photos face use intelligence to feature more individualization, and Apple Watch and the Health app on iPhone and iPad offer additional support for users who are pregnant. Check In, the Translate app, and new capabilities for the double tap gesture come to Apple Watch for added connectivity and convenience.

Just months after its initial release, visionOS 2 brings powerful spatial computing experiences to Apple Vision Pro, including new ways for users to create spatial photos with the images already in their library, intuitive hand gestures to easily access important information at a glance, and new features for Mac Virtual Display, Travel Mode, and Guest User. visionOS 2 also introduces exciting new capabilities like Follow Your Breathing in the Mindfulness app, SharePlay for Photos, and multiview in the TV app.

With tvOS 18 , intelligent new features like InSight — and updates to Enhance Dialogue and subtitles — level up cinematic experiences, while new Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, and FaceTime capabilities get even better on users’ biggest screen. The Home app gains new features with iOS 18, like guest access and hands-free unlock with home keys, delivering effortless and secure access to the home. AirPods software updates will transform the way users respond to Siri with new gestures, take calls with friends and loved ones, and immerse themselves in their favorite games.

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