--- title: 'Enter the Aadvark' Is Sharp Political Satire description: Jessica Anthony's latest novel follows an ambitious politician as he struggles to hide his sexuality. canonical: https://time.com/5805115/jessica-anthony-enter-the-aardvark/ author: Annabel Gutterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-03-18T16:40:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T08:28:25.856Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Political Satire 'Enter the Aardvark' Is Wonderfully Weird og:description: An image-obsessed politician, a big secret and an aardvark og:url: https://time.com/5805115/jessica-anthony-enter-the-aardvark/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aa3aae7afd7f198/698a0acadb29873ec7264ff1/march-books-enter-the-aardvark-jessica-anthony.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: march-books-enter-the-aardvark-jessica-anthony og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Political Satire 'Enter the Aardvark' Is Wonderfully Weird twitter:description: An image-obsessed politician, a big secret and an aardvark twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aa3aae7afd7f198/698a0acadb29873ec7264ff1/march-books-enter-the-aardvark-jessica-anthony.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Political Satire _Enter the Aardvark_ Is Wonderfully Weird > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Annabel Gutterman](https://time.com/author/annabel-gutterman/)  ## Annabel Gutterman Senior Editor Mar 18, 2020 4:40 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Annabel Gutterman](https://time.com/author/annabel-gutterman/)  ## Annabel Gutterman Senior Editor Mar 18, 2020 4:40 PM UTC When Alexander Paine Wilson sees the aardvark for the first time, he’s annoyed. This isn’t a surprising reaction for the young Republican Congressman — he’s easily irritated. That morning, he’s already aggrieved by the broken air-conditioning in his townhouse (on a particularly hot day in Washington, D.C.) and the fact that he has no wife or children, which makes his reelection odds less favorable than he’d like. When a giant box with a taxidermied aardvark arrives, Wilson suspects he knows where it came from. And he’s not happy. [_Enter the Aardvark_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316536156/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time-books-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0316536156&linkId=66eafeae0e9eb7a2659bef990f51c9cd), Jessica Anthony’s second novel, flips between modern-day D.C. and 19th century England, when the aardvark was first found by a naturalist who offered it to his friend, a taxidermist. Quickly, Anthony reveals that these men had more in common with Wilson than he’d like to admit: they were gay and forced to hide their [sexuality](https://time.com/5707215/tennessee-warren-hurst-buttigieg-anti-gay-slur/). The aardvark served as a totem of their forbidden love — and its arrival threatens to unravel Wilson’s carefully constructed image. The politician’s narration, which is written in the second person, captures his gnawing agitations with the world, which quickly fester to anger. It’s this rage that Anthony methodically — and hilariously — picks apart through her protagonist’s misguided obsession with how he’s perceived by others. Wilson desperately wants to be someone he isn’t, and thinks he can buy his way into becoming the next [Reagan](https://time.com/4429869/dnc-ronald-reagan-donald-trump/). When preparing to confront the man he thinks sent the animal, he seethes as he dons his political costume: “Motherof_god_, you think, what a pain in the _ass_, as you dress yourself, head to toe, in light casual summerwear from J. Crew.” Though _Enter the Aardvark_ is certainly satire, Anthony’s depiction of Wilson’s repressed sexuality cuts beneath the surface. Her dissection of Wilson’s political beliefs, particularly his [anti-abortion stance](https://time.com/5742053/ectopic-pregnancy-ohio-abortion-bill/), isn’t just sharp commentary on polarization, identity and power in the U.S. It’s also a poignant examination of what happens when we deny ourselves the ability to love and be loved. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5805115/jessica-anthony-enter-the-aardvark/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5805115/jessica-anthony-enter-the-aardvark/"},"headline":"Political Satire Enter the Aardvark Is Wonderfully Weird","datePublished":"2020-03-18T16:40:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:28:25.856Z","description":"An image-obsessed politician, a big secret and an aardvark","url":"https://time.com/5805115/jessica-anthony-enter-the-aardvark/","keywords":["Books","review"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aa3aae7afd7f198/698a0acadb29873ec7264ff1/march-books-enter-the-aardvark-jessica-anthony.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Annabel Gutterman","jobTitle":"Senior Editor","url":"https://time.com/author/annabel-gutterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aa3aae7afd7f198/698a0acadb29873ec7264ff1/march-books-enter-the-aardvark-jessica-anthony.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"march-books-enter-the-aardvark-jessica-anthony","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5805115/jessica-anthony-enter-the-aardvark/","name":"Political Satire Enter the Aardvark Is Wonderfully Weird"}}]}] ```