I mean, I think everyone's feelings about whether it's successfully escapist or not will vary (and the American political stuff is, uh, definitely SIGNIFICANTLY more fleshed out than the British stuff; what's going on in British politics? who knows! who cares! Prince Harry's donating lots of money to charity and the tabloids are into it, that's nice! prime minister what prime minister?) buuuut yeah. When Alex's emails to Harry got got his mother embroiled in a private email server scandal right before the election I just had to put the book down for a bit.