John Ganz on Very Good Sweaters
"What I'm basically looking for is a sweater that looks like it could be worn by an IRA gunman, a member of the French resistance, or a Royal Marines commando in the war."
There’s a lot that is funny and marvelous about book publishing once you stop and think about it. I love that you can get a book early, at a higher price, if you buy the hardback. And then a few months later, if you loved the book, you can buy the paperback for friends.
And so, a recommendation! John Ganz’s When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s is out in paperback this week. You can read a post John wrote called “What My Book is About.” Or you can take it from me, someone who would rather die than read dry non-fiction: It’s a fun and engaging book about how weird politics were in the ‘90s. The book has a great premise. “History, as the cliché goes, is written by the winners, but this is a history of the losers: candidates that bubbled up and fizzled out, protests that exploded and dissipated, writers who toiled at the margins of American life, figures who became briefly famous or infamous and then were forgotten.” You can read the rave in the Times here (if you prefer to take it from them). I low key can’t stand Obama right now, but he did put it on his reading list, which matters to people like my mother. (I had to physically stop her from buying Michelle’s memoir at Barnes and Noble once.)
John writes a very good Substack called Unpopular Front that augments my other political outlets (mostly TruAnon). Last week, he wrote a hilarious piece about how much he hates Rich Beck, who just reviewed his book (with glaring errors) in n+1. Rich Beck used to work at Us Weekly with me, in the copy pool, and spent the entire time writing a book at work. Smart. However, it always annoyed me, so it’s funny to see him getting stabbed over and over by one of my friends.
John isn’t really like the other politics guys, who in my head are kind of ugly and wear T-shirts. First of all, he’s from New York City and has truly excellent taste in restaurants. (His Grub Street diet is here.) For our purposes, it’s important to note that he’s a sharp dresser. I’m always asking John where his blazers are from, where his coats are from, where he got his sweaters. Etc. He’s finally acquiesced to my pestering, and shared a list of his favorite sweater brands with us!
John Ganz’s Favorite Sweaters
What I'm basically looking for is a sweater that looks like it could be worn by an IRA gunman, a member of the French resistance, or a Royal Marines commando in the war. (So, really like a fisherman, I guess.)
My favorite thing is a Le Tricoteur Guernsey. Le Tricoteur is the real deal, but you can get Guernsey pattern elsewhere for cheaper. But still, these will last a lifetime and don't cost all that much considering.
Here's a little secret: Charles Tyrwhit is really cheap and no one will know. I wear this sometimes with a blazer which is a borderline obnoxious look, but the sweater gets a lot of compliments, like I spend a fortune on it. Nope, it’s 75 bucks.
