Good as Gold / Lies
May. 19th, 2004 01:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishJoseph Heller, Good as Gold
Heller wrote Catch-22 and a bunch of other things that didn't do as well (and, in all honesty, weren't as good; but then, what is?). Good as Gold follows Bruce Gold, Jewish university professor, as he tries to gain a position of influence in Washington in the late seventies. Coolness points for the President who's spent his entire first year in office writing a memoir of his first year in office and for Ralph Newsome, who speaks like Milo Minderbinder: "I can practically guarantee that, although I can't be sure. That's as much as I can tell you right now. . . . We'll have to move ahead speedily, although we'll want to go as slowly as possible." Negative coolness points for the massive flood of Gold's sisters right at the beginning and my trouble keeping them all straight, and for his exceptionally irritating stepmother. Pretty good and not a waste of my time, but not something I'll reread often.
Al Franken, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
Franken's contention is that, with the exception of Rupert Murdoch's conglomerate, the only media bias that matters is the bias towards scandal and easy reporting. He writes well, though the humor sometimes gets in the way of the point [but then, he's a humorist first]. The first half or so is devoted to dissecting various right-wing liars like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Ann Coulter, and is actually fairly lighthearted. After that I read 'one more chapter' expecting it to be similarly light and then go to bed. The next section of the book was all about the Bush administration's spin machine; I think the chapter in question was on Paul Wellstone [D-MI]'s funeral. Still funny, but less light. Not exactly the best of bedtime reading.
I think everyone should read this book. I also don't think anyone who needs to read this book will.
Heller wrote Catch-22 and a bunch of other things that didn't do as well (and, in all honesty, weren't as good; but then, what is?). Good as Gold follows Bruce Gold, Jewish university professor, as he tries to gain a position of influence in Washington in the late seventies. Coolness points for the President who's spent his entire first year in office writing a memoir of his first year in office and for Ralph Newsome, who speaks like Milo Minderbinder: "I can practically guarantee that, although I can't be sure. That's as much as I can tell you right now. . . . We'll have to move ahead speedily, although we'll want to go as slowly as possible." Negative coolness points for the massive flood of Gold's sisters right at the beginning and my trouble keeping them all straight, and for his exceptionally irritating stepmother. Pretty good and not a waste of my time, but not something I'll reread often.
Al Franken, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
Franken's contention is that, with the exception of Rupert Murdoch's conglomerate, the only media bias that matters is the bias towards scandal and easy reporting. He writes well, though the humor sometimes gets in the way of the point [but then, he's a humorist first]. The first half or so is devoted to dissecting various right-wing liars like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Ann Coulter, and is actually fairly lighthearted. After that I read 'one more chapter' expecting it to be similarly light and then go to bed. The next section of the book was all about the Bush administration's spin machine; I think the chapter in question was on Paul Wellstone [D-MI]'s funeral. Still funny, but less light. Not exactly the best of bedtime reading.
I think everyone should read this book. I also don't think anyone who needs to read this book will.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-22 10:36 pm (UTC)Jonathan