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Synopsis
The source of the now-infamous slam on George W. Bush — "a blind man in a roomful of deaf people" — works best as policy wonk how-to guide, not political tell-all.
Review
For some, his career ended with a simple snapshot. In the most famous politician-rock star photo pairing since Nixon and Elvis, US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and U2's Bono were photographed donning traditional Ugandan garb — the administration official uncomfortable, his arm raised as if taking an oath; the rocker serene and relaxed. As the media's echo chamber noted in the days following the African photo op, political machinations are not fond of allowing such moments of candor and potential embarrassment. Then again, the political machine was never fond of Paul O'Neill in the first place.
In The Price of Loyalty, former Wall Street Journal writer Ron Suskind recounts O'Neill's time in the George W. Bush administration (as told to him by the former treasury secretary), where politics and sound policy are pitted against one another as O'Neill, ousted EPA head Christine Todd Whitman, and soon-to-be-ousted Secretary of State Colin Powell regularly square off against Bush's political advisor Karl Rove, ex-economic advisor Larry Lindsay, and Vice President Dick Cheney for the president's ear. While the issues are certainly specific to the early '00s (tax cuts, Iraq, global warming, energy), the book's underlying questions — what role does truth play in politics and how best to inform a president about tough decisions — are evergreens that, ironically, were possibly best handled by the Nixon and Clinton administrations.
O'Neill emerges from The Price of Loyalty completely unscathed (not surprising, as it's his book), but the American political process does not. Based on his years as CEO of Alcoa, an aluminum company, O'Neill came to value transparency and careful reasoning above all else. Yet as his sudden firing from the administration in December 2002 illustrated, in the philosophical cul-de-sacs of Washington, D.C., these qualities are not assets but liabilities. In theory, our government may be about the distribution of power, but in practice O'Neill shows us that the basic tenets of hegemony reign, oftentimes erasing the great American dream of democracy proposed by our forefathers. (YS)
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Synopsis
A 1961 novel about a generation and a timeless American dream, Revolutionary Road tells the story of a young couple's aspirations to rise up from mediocrity and claim their birthright.
Review
In the home office of Knox Machines in Manhattan, Frank Wheeler inhabits a wasteland of a workplace. Like a page out of Dilbert or My New Filing Technique, the employees carry on like automatons, sorting papers into stacks and attending inane meetings; timing their days until lunch, their weeks until payday. His wife, April, stays at home in Connecticut, taking care of the household and their two children.
But that is only the backdrop, they would say — the Wheelers are different from the rest. A young, educated man, Frank has an ironic smile and an animated intelligence. Bright and lovely, April is a star in their little town. Had it not been for her first pregnancy, early in their marriage, she might have been an actress. Perhaps they'd still be in New York, but more likely, they would have made it already to Paris. There's still time for them to take the next step — for him to find his true vocation, and for them both to enter the "world of marvelous golden people." The mellifluous descriptions of their early dreams stand in contrast to the life they've found on Revolutionary Road, where they talk of rising above the ennui and hopeless emptiness of self-contented neighbors in country casual clothes with their new cars and TVs.
From his pregnant first sentence, Yates disrupts the grand plans, exposing the potentially fatal defects of characters constantly flirting with utter failure. No one in the book escapes his harsh light, which lays bare petty machinations, rash simplicities, and secret failings below the surface, rising quickly like blood to the cheeks. We watch as Frank and April exchange bile, denying their truer selves and pitifully struggling for hope against humiliation, love against final rejection. Amidst the shame, their otherworldly inspirations lose their pluck. The neighbors carry on nearby. And somewhere in the cold reality of this brilliant narrative, witnessed with flushed faces and eyes wide open, is a seed for cathartic change, we hope. (MM)
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Synopsis
Crisscrossing America in a Volkswagen van from 1978 to 1987, Joel Sternfeld photographed everyday people and places, revealing a nation in flux.
Review
"I think America is an incredibly complicated and complex society…that's what makes it so interesting," said Joel Sternfeld to an NPR interviewer in 2001. He should know; after receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship for his urban street photography in 1978, the New York-born photographer traveled the highways and byways of this country, from Maine to Alaska and back again, in search of interesting subjects. Photographs from American Prospects were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1984 and originally published as a book in 1987. This tabletop tome was remastered, redesigned, and reprinted at a larger, more impressive scale — an exquisite volume of strangely humorous and disquieting images that convey as much about who we are now as when they were first made.
Using a large-format camera, Sternfeld captures the American landscape like a realist painter, revealing endless details to construct a narrative. He takes the distanced view of an observer rather than a participant and carefully sets his subjects in loaded environments. A fireman buys a pumpkin at a Virginia farm stand as his battalion battles a blazing house nearby. Black domestic workers wait for a bus to take them away from a well-manicured Atlanta suburb. A blind man in Alaska poses in his garden, bursting with colorful flora. In a number of other works, man encroaches on nature or fabricates it, as in the cover image of swimmers in a wave pool of an aquatic theme park in landlocked Orlando. Following in the photographic tradition of Walker Evans and inspired by the color work of William Eggleston, Sternfeld powerfully explores the American psyche with wit, irony, and true compassion. (PL)
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FEATURE
American Cooking
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Food has always served as a reflection of culture, both metaphorically and literally. It is indicative of status and lifestyle, and for some, there is nothing finer than a fast food burger. For others, it runs as gourmet as pate de foie gras. But one thing that all Americans agree on as component of the good life, is the barbecue. And nobody knows barbecue like Cheryl and Bill Jamison, whose recently updated cookbook, Smoke & Spice, is the definitive tome on the subject. Filled with not only recipes but advice, anecdotes, and colorful characters, it's a fun read, even if your backyard is a fire escape. For a historical perspective on our gourmet tradition, look no further than Chef Walter Staib's City Tavern Cookbook, a labor of love documenting our culinary heritage and including recipes directly from our forefathers, such as Thomas Jefferson's recipe for ale. And for everyone who wants to be the next Tony Bourdein or Emeril Lagasse, Michael Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef gives the reader an insider's perspective on what it takes to master the culinary arts. (JM)
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BOOK NEWS
A few notable bits of recent print reporting.
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Beckham's autobiography is the fastest selling in history (BBC)
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Soccer star sells more than 100,000 copies in first week.
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Poets die young (Reuters)
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Choosing poetry over nonfiction could take six years off your life.
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Fifteen-year-old writes bestseller (Salon.com)
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Romanian-born Flavia Bujor started writing her novel at 12.
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Clinton book comes out in June (AP)
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The former president is apparently receiving $10 to $12 million for My Life, which will have a first run
of 1.5 million copies.
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Cheney sex novel will be sent back to print (SF Chronicle)
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The sexy 1981 novel by VP Dick Cheney's wife Lynne, which involves
prostitution, lesbianism, and other potentially anti-American practices, will
go back to print after all.
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PEN Awards announced (AP)
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Former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky, short story writer Mavis Gallant, and novelist Jonathan Safran Foer
win annual stipends.
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