Smells Like Dead Elephants

A few weeks back, when I asked "What are you reading?" Pissed Off Patricia mentioned Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire, by Matt Taibbi (Grove Atlantic, $14.00). There was an ARC at the house we were staying at so I borrowed it.

Since it was a publisher's Advance copy, there wasn't finished art or cover copy, other than the Washington Post saying "A political reporter with the gonzo spirit that made Hunter S Thompson and P. J. O'Rourke so much fun." As I started reading, I thought this guy must be writing for Rolling Stone, no one else would print this stuff! And indeed, the essays start when he got an editorial job at Rolling Stone.

Taibbi spends time with Bernie Sanders, watching him try to address the House Rules Committee and present 4 amendments, all of which have bi-partisan support. As he describes the lobbyist leprechaun rules that govern DC, it becomes a mirror fun house, all bent on not really doing anything.

"It's funny," Sanders says. "When I first came to Congress, I'd been mayor of Burlington, Vermont - a professional politician. And I didn't know any of this. I assumed that if you get majorities in both houses, you win. I figured it's democracy, right?"

Well, that's what they call it, anyway.

Taibbi attempts to see Cindy Sheehan during the first sit in near Crawford, trying to get past her oh so protective handlers. In Oct 05, he goes to New Orleans with Sean Penn, whose star power is often the only thing that gets them past the barricades for his article Apocalypse There. Later in the book, How To Steal a Coastline from April 06 will show what a massive land grab reconstruction has been. Taibbi is truly humbled by these experiences.

Fort Apache Iraq, Darwinian Warfare, or the Worst Congress Ever, it's really hard to pick my favorite essay. They will all enrage you. This volume tempts me to subscribe to Rolling Stone again, after some 24 years. But I will keep Matt Taibbi's name handy for googling.

This really is a great recommend, thanks so much P.O.P.!

Smells Like Dead Elephants originally came out in Oct 07, so you may have to have your Fine Independent Bookstore order it for you. Or ask your favorite librarian.

So, what are you reading this week?

*from The Book Report at the General's

Second Life!

The miracle of Mitosis! We are a couple! Well, that and finally getting Dano a computer!


Virtual Jackson Street Books

Nixonland

Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland (Scribner Book Company $37.50) is far and away the most absorbing and fascinating history I have read in a long while. Of course, I came of age during the period he describes so well, and it resonates for me. At times, while reading, I’m embarrassed by the exuberance of my youth; at other times I remember the passion of my youth fondly. But even if you missed the sixties, you will also be transfixed by this narrative.

Beginning with the apotheosis of Lyndon Johnson and his social agenda in 1964, and the debacle of the Goldwater candidacy, Perlstein moves onto the social forces that ultimately brought down his presidency. At center stage is Richard Nixon, carefully repairing his reputation after the 1960 presidential race and his loss to Pat Brown for Governor of California in 1962, and exploiting every fissure that surfaced in American society to his advantage.

The social movements are there: the growing Anti-war movement and the Civil Rights movement that morphed into a different kind of thing after the Civil Rights Act of ’64 and the Voting Rights Act of ’65, both ultimately coalescing in Martin Luther King, hated and vilified by many, loved and sainted by others. Both merge in the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and the police riot that ensued.

The personalities are there too: a young Nixon speechwriter, Pat Buchanan; Timothy Leary; Richard Speck; Senator Edward Brooke; Eugene McCarthy; Robert Kennedy; George Romney; Seymour Hersh; Norman Mailer; the Berrigan Brothers; Abbie Hoffman; Ronald Reagan; Barry Goldwater; Nelson Rockefeller. The list goes on.

And ironies are noted. Humphrey’s staunchest supporters are the southern delegates; many were the same ones who walked out on his brave Civil Rights speech in 1948 and began the Dixiecrat party with Strom Thurmond at its head. That would be the same Strom Thurmond who made secret deals with Nixon before the GOP convention in 1968, ensuring a Nixon candidacy.

Perlstein’s contention is that the United States was about as close at this time to civil war as it had been since the 1860’s. He reminds us why. It was a time that the conservative Chicago Tribune could editorialize on the day of Martin Luther King’s funeral that “ The murder of Dr, King was a crime and the sin of an individual…The man who committed the act must come to terms with him maker..(The) rest of us (are) not contributory to this particular crime”. It was this kind of fine analysis that could drive any red-blooded human being to rebellion.

This book is 748 pages long in text, with an additional 100+ in notes and index. I am about half way through and will follow up this report with another next week. In the meantime, go get a copy and read this work. It’s worth the money.


Rick Perstein will be interviewed by Jimbo Hoyer at Virtually Speaking in Second Life 6 pm PST/SLT, May 29th.

Department of Book Reports 65: The Art of Racing in the Rain

UPDATE: The Art of Racing in the Rain has been chosen as the #1 Booksense Pick for June! My faith in my fellow indies is restored! The book is available at all bookstores now, but I urge you to buy it from an indie and help drive up those bestseller numbers!




I had to submit my Booksense blurb for this book back in March, and I just can't wait on this book report any longer!
The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein (Harper, $24.95) Narrated by the big hearted Enzo, this story reminds us of the grace of everyday, the preciousness of each moment. “In Mongolia, when a dog dies, he is buried high in the hills so people cannot walk on his grave. The dog's master whispers into the dog's ear his wishes that the dog will return as a man in his next life." Enzo, watches everything, the untimely death of Denny's wife and the 3 year battle with his inlaws for custody of their daughter, doing all he can to keep this family intact. Heartbreaking and achingly perfect this book is really impossible to describe. Enzo is a dog who can explain what it is to be human.

This is a book I'm going to be evangelical about! Really. You must read this one. Yes, it's about car racing. Yes, it's narrated by the dog. Trust me here. There is plenty of heart in this novel, and a compelling story with characters that will stay with you long after the read. Don't forget the Kleenex™.

The Northwest Booksellers gave Garth the annual book award for his last novel, How Evan Broke his Head. That's another recommended read. We usually run into Garth at our regional trade shows, in the bar at the end of the day. Last year, he was in Portland to race the next day and stopped by with his dad to see the booksellers. There was finally good news about his manuscript, after much passing around publishers, HarperCollins had bought the English only rights. For a nice chunk of change. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

My friend Jenn over at Shelf Awareness is also a fan and has a video trailer. Click on: "The Art of Meeting an Author in a Cafe" or scroll to the bottom for her article.


I was disappointed they didn't pick my Booksense blurb, and also surprised that The Art of Racing in the Rain wasn't even on the list. More people need to be told to read this one and I want to go on record as having told you first, before you see this book in every Sta®bu©ks™ in the universe next month.


UPDATE: SeattleDan has been quoted in the paper!

P.S.: Celebrating with Kevin O'Brien after Garth's wonderful May 13th signing launch in Madison Park.

River

My Booksense Blurb will be published in the January Picks Newsletter! Here's the full length version:
River, by Lowen Clausen (Silo Press, $15.95)
Lowen Clausen has written an exquisitely heart-breaking novel, with a soul as big as the eponymous River.
After the death of his son, a father takes the river voyage he has always dreamed of. Starting out from his family farm on the headwaters in the Sandhills of Nebraska, his inner voyage takes him to new acceptance of the son he never said goodbye to in life, while he faces the solitude and challenges of the river itself. The land plays as large a part of the story as do the people on the river.
This elegiac story will resonate with everyone who takes its journey for a long time.
-Tammy Domike, Jackson Street Books
This isn't the first time I've gotten my rec printed (Opal, A Fistful of Rain), but it's especially sweet as this is the second one I've gotten for Lowen. Way back when, we got a free copy of a new book by a first time author. We usually approach these offerings with trepidation, but this one was set in Seattle in 1980, (just when I got here!) along First Avenue's strip joints. I fell in love with the book and have been evangelical for the Seattle Cop Trilogy ever since. I slid a copy to the sales rep of my former employer, and they actually offered Lowen a paperback contract! Sweet! That's the only time I've ever managed to get that kind of magic to work.

Or, maybe not. Lowen wisely kept control of the Hardcover rights, and produced beautiful elegant volumes and then, later, a box to hold them. The publisher, not so much. Stereotypical cop/thriller cover art that told you nothing of what was inside. And, they had a habit of letting them go out of print, most notably, Second Watch, just 2 months before the release of Third and Forever. And still, publishers wonder why back list doesn't sell. Hint: keep it in print!

Everything Lowen has done has been a class act.While still a beat cop, he attended writing classes at UW. His dedication to the craft of writing has produced this heart-breaking breath of air. Read this book and then go hug your child.

River is a journey once taken by Lowen and his daughter. I was priveleged to be on the list for his weekly e-journals. of that voyage. The pictures here have become scenes in the book. As you read, come back and look at the pictures.


River (and the boxed set!) are available at Jackson Street Books and fine independent bookstores everywhere!

River

I was going to write a big ole book report about River, but I'm so happy I get to be the Booksense pick for Lowen twice!

Just had to share!


RIVER, by Lowen Clausen (Silo Press, $14.95 paper, 9780972581127 / 097258112X) "After the death of his son, a father takes the river voyage he has always dreamed of. Starting out from his family farm on the headwaters in the Sandhills of Nebraska, his inner voyage takes him to new acceptance of the son he never said goodbye to in life, while he faces the solitude and challenges of the river itself. The land plays as large a part of the story as do the people on the river. Lowen Clausen has written an exquisitely heartbreaking novel, with a soul as big as the eponymous river." --Tammy Domike, Jackson Street Books, Seattle, WA

The Book Report!

Jeffrey Toobin’s fascinating The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (Doubleday $27.95) has everything any political junkie could want. With wit, lucidity and clarity, Jeffrey Toobin relates the history of recent Court history, recounts the major cases, and give incisive profiles of the men and women who serve on the court.
The New York Times Sunday review of the book (and I try not to read too many reviews before writing my own report, so as not to influence my own view) emphasizes a favorite Beltway game of guessing who amongst the Justices talked to Toobin. While that may be fun, I have to say, I don’t really care. Even if some of the justices didn’t talk to Toobin, his sources are close enough. I got a very good sense of who these people are, how they think, and what their temperaments are like. From the privately affable Clarence Thomas, to the reclusive David Souter (who learned only in 2003 that there was a Pop group called The Supremes), to the fairly pompous Anthony Kennedy, to the over-the-top Antonin Scalia, the justices are vividly sketched. Front and center among them is Sandra Day O’Connor who, more often than not, was the swing vote on the court. She tried over those years to steer a middle course and prided herself on knowing the pulse of the country. Sometimes she succeeded, other times, not. She played a central role and cast the deciding vote in Bush v. Gore, a decision we get the feeling she truly regretted as her disenchantment with the President and her “beloved” Republican Party grew.
Toobin covers the intellectual history as well, from the liberal Warren court, through the Burger and Rehnquist courts, to the recent Roberts Nine. The rise to prominence of the Federalist Society, a conservative movement begun in the early ‘80’s and championed by Robert Bork and Scalia, has dominated the thinking of many Bush nominees and appointments. The movement itself wanted to undermine the constitutional basis of a strong government; if it isn’t explicit in the Constitution, then it isn’t constitutional. Apparently it is a document that is race-blind and without gender bias. All constitutional questions should be judged by what the founding Fathers intended. So we have a lot of justices now serving who can also read minds. Especially the minds of men dead for two hundred years.
Iraq will be a devastating legacy for the administration. Alas, so will the Supreme Court appointments and the other justices on the lower courts that Bush has installed. It will take years, perhaps decades, to undo what has been thrust upon us. Paraphrasing Toobin, the Conservative agenda of overturning Roe, expanding executive power, speeding up executions, welcoming religion into the political arena and ‘returning the Constitution from its exile since the New Deal’ is within reach. Only Anthony Kennedy could stand in the way and for all his sophistication, he isn’t Sandra Day O’Connor. What a frickin’ mess.

The Nine is available at Jackson Street Books and Fine Independent Bookstores everywhere.

More Favorite First Lines

I knew I had these saved somewhere, just took me a while to find 'em. Any typos are mine.

When I finally caught up with Abraham Trehearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine Spring afternoon.
James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss

You're no angel, you know how this stuff comes to happen: Friday is payday and it's been a gray day sogged by a slow ugly rain and you seek company in your gloom, and since you're fresh to West Table, Mo., and a new hand at the dog-food factory, your choices for company are narrow but you find some finally in a trailer court on East Main, and the coed circle of bums gathered there spot you a beer, then a jug of tequila starts to rotate and the rain keeps comin' down with a miserable bluesy beat and there's two girls millin' about that probably can be had but they seem to like certain things and crank is one of those certain things, and a fistful of party straws tumble from a woven handbag somebody brung, the crank gets cut into lines, and the next time you notice the time it's three or four Sunday mornin' and you ain't slept since Thursday night and one of the girl voices, the one you want the most and ain't had yet though her teeth are the size of shoe-peg corn and look like maybe they'd taste kind of sour, suggests something to do, 'cause with crank you want something, anything, to do, and this cajoling voice suggests we all rob this certain house on this certain street in that rich area where folks can afford to wallow in their vices and likely to have a bunch of recreational dope stashed around the mansion and goin' to waste since an article in The Scroll said the rich people whisked off to France or some such on a note-worthy vacation.
Daniel Woodrell, Tomato Red

Favorite First Lines

Inspired by a music thread from last week that was posted by our friend, Patriotboy at Jesus’ General, I would like to know what your favorite first lines from literature (poetry, fiction, belle letteres) is. Don’t be shy. “Call me Ishmael”, “Marley was dead”, “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”. Whatever may strike you as good.

New Books for this Week!

Bill Clinton has penned Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (Knopf $24.95). The former President draws upon his many travels, and his service, to give many examples of how ordinary people can make a difference. Giving is described as an inspired call to action. He made an appearance today on Oprah.

Sebastian Faulks, the author of Birdsong and On Green Dolphin Street, has a new novel, Engleby (Doubleday $24.95), a first person narrative, who may or may not be deceiving us about his involvement in the disappearance of his classmate.

Widely admired Edwidge Danticat’s new memoir, Brother, I’m Dying (Knopf $23.95), describes the relationship of her father and her Uncle Joe, a Haitian preacher, who is forced to abandonHaiti, only to run into roadblocks from the U.S. Government.

Ira Flatow, host of NPR’s Science Friday, has delivered Present at the Future: From Evolution to Nanotechnology, Candid and Controversial Conversations on Science and Nature (Collins $24.95). I think the title says it all!

Tree of Smoke (Farrar, Straus, Giroux $27.00), the new novel about Vietnam by Denis Johnson, received a rave review in this week’s New York Times Sunday Book Review, as well as by NPR’s Alan Cheuse on today’s All Things Considered.

New books reissued in paperback include Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai’s memoirs Unbowed (Anchor Books $14.95); Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Purple Hibiscus, latest novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (Anchor $14.95) explores the Biafran struggle for independence from Nigeria in the late 1960’s; and Jane Hamilton’s When Madeline Was Young(Anchor Books $13.95) tells the tale of a young wife who suffers a debilitating bicycle accident.


Where's your bookmark?

He Read Camus? He read Graham Greene?

Here, via Crooks and Liars, is an excerpt from El Presidente's speech today at the VFW convention.

Graham Greene is spinning in his grave. I've read lots of GG's books, a wonderful writer, and believe me, The Quiet American, is a cautionary tale on how American policy interests in Southeast Asia will screw our country up. If you don't want to read the book, view the movie which stars Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser, as the Quiet American. It's NOT a pro-American interventionist book or movie. I just can't believe our President's gumption in citing Graham Greene, of all people, to bolster support for this freekin' war. But, I guess, no one at the VFW has ever read Graham Greene.

Greene was always highly suspicious of American foreign policy. He was Roman Catholic, a whore-hound, with a beautiful sense of creating characters, plotting, and could be just plain fun. Those of old enough to remember "Our Man in Havana" or "Travels with My Aunt" will know. He should have won a Nobel. But he didn't. Read him and remember him.

As to our President, shame on him for citing a very good book, and a great author, that he will never understand. No matter how much he wants to allude to him. What a jerk.


The American: I'm from a country that's been in existence for less than two hundred years, in a very old world. That same fifty years ago, we were barely taken seriously as a nation, much less a great force for wisdom and decision. But suddenly now, a watch tick of history later, the world waits angrily for us to provide the answers it hasn't been able to find in fifty centuries.


UPDATE: Thursday August 23 This guy says it better than me!

Kerouac

This week’s Sunday New York Times Book Review offered a generally positive front page notice of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road: The Original Scroll (Viking $25.95), just issued in celebration of the book’s 50th anniversary.
The review reminded me of the story of the book’s origin. Jack had been trying to write a novel revolving around his cross-country trips with his friend, Neal Cassady, but without finding either the right hook or voice. Having recently married, Jack taped together a roll from a ream of paper; he then sat down, and in a three-week period, he wrote the novel, finding his voice in telling his new bride about his adventures. Flush with excitement, he took the Ms. to the editor of his first novel (the much more conventional The Town and the City), Robert Giroux, then of Harcourt Brace. Giroux reportedly said “ But, Jack, how can we make changes?”, not understanding that Jack, at that point, wasn’t really interested in making any changes. Kerouac believed in the purity of his spontaneous composition. Jack left Giroux’s office, and spent the next five years, tying to find a publisher. Eventually, the Ms. made its way into the capable hands of Malcolm Cowley at the Viking Press. Changes were made, and the book made a big splash when it was finally published.
My personal feeling is that Jack’s best work, and I believe he was a truly great writer, was the stuff Cowley had a hand in: On the Road and Dharma Bums. I do like much of Kerouac’s other, more spontaneous work: Subterraneans, Maggie Cassidty, Vanity of Dulouz But the stuff that will live is the work published by Viking.


Special Thanks to Thomas Hawk for the use of his photograph.