Writing the biography of Volodymyr Zelensky, the supreme entertainer-statesman of the 21st century, would be a tough proposition at the best of times. These are possibly the worst of times, now that Ukraine faces a war to destruction with no end in sight.
The difficulty lies in Zelensky’s strengths in manipulating audiences, with more than a touch of conjuror skills in misdirection. Simon Shuster, for some 10 years Time magazine’s man in Ukraine, does his best to get at the personality behind the trademark scrubby beard and the combat fatigue jersey. The Showman does the job admirably in telling this modern parable of clown who played Hamlet — or more respectfully, and accurately, the jester-satirist of Russian and Ukraine prime-time TV morphed into president and war leader.
