In the summer of 1991, a group of conspirators staged a muddled coup to overthrow then-USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev, ultimately accelerating the shift from communism to capitalism.
—
Jake Angelo,
semafor.com,
4 Aug. 2026
As Port falls in with a group of conspirators preparing for the insurrection, the book takes on a hallucinatory, digressive quality, blurring the lines between life and death, reality and illusion.
In reality, the big debate has been about questions such as whether military bases should be named for traitors and whether governments should host monuments to a rebellion to defend slavery.
—
David A. Graham,
The Atlantic,
21 July 2026
Those who opposed the coup, like Tom Keith's grandfather, are still often thought of as traitors, just as his distant relatives are.
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