This 1935 novel about the elevation of a populist con-artist with fascistic tendencies to the highest office in the land is just the sort of escapist reading to really take your mind off your troubles these days. In all seriousness, depending on your perspective this is either the worst or the best time to cross Sinclair Lewis’s late-career polemic off your to-be-read list. The description of the fictitious Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip’s rise to power will in most respects feel all too familiar to anyone who […]
War on Film
Five Came Back is a look into the wartime experiences of five famous film-makers who took major hiatuses in the middle of their careers to lend their talents to the American war effort during World War II. While their contributions and their exposure to danger varied significantly, each of the five men, Frank Capra, John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, and George Stevens made sacrifices and had experiences that would forever alter their films and their lives. It’s a compelling story, which may explain why […]
A Long Short Story
George Saunders’s short stories are perhaps the most celebrated in America today, and rightly so. They are fascinatingly strange and full of unique insights. They remind me of Kurt Vonnegut, only weirder. In light of this there was no way I wasn’t going to rush out and buy his highly-anticipated first novel on the day it came out. True to form, Lincoln in the Bardo is just about the weirdest idea for a novel I’ve ever encountered. After the death of his beloved son Willie, […]
Moments of Zen
This oral history of the Jon Stewart years of The Daily Show is a mostly-entertaining look behind the scenes of the influential show. It is also a backdoor history of the last 17 or so years. Seriously, if you’re too young to really remember the Bush v. Gore election or the invasion of Iraq, you could learn a bit from reading this book. As an oral history, one of the more impressive attributes of the book is the many luminaries they got to speak. Senator […]
Mostly Charmless
You can get the whole idea of “Dirk Gently” and his so-called detective agency from one line. Referring to Sherlock Holmes’ famous precept that “once you eliminate the impossible, whatever’s left, however improbable, must be the truth” Dirk replies, “I prefer not to eliminate the impossible.” That’s a clever line, but also rather exasperating. That’s Dirk Gently, and this book, in a nutshell. I laughed quite a few times at some inspired bit of absurdity or an ingenious turn of phrase, but mostly I found […]
I Ain’t No Senator’s Son
When an escapee from the state mental hospital knocks on his door late at night, divorced ex-cop Lew Archer finds himself suddenly entangled in a long-running family drama. Carl Hallman is the scion of a powerful state senator, locked up because he blamed himself for the deaths of his mother and father. When Archer convinces Hallman to turn himself in, the detective’s sense of curiosity gets the better of him, and when he asks one question he finds himself knocked out on the floor and […]
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