From an admitted wiseass liberal, and surely not to the taste of the current political majority, this is the kind of...
Five-time Emmy Award winner Franken (formerly of Saturday Night Live) becomes a political pundit with a vengeance—a vengeance directed against Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, and others of similar stripe, as well as fat old Rush.
If he continues in this vein, Franken may emerge as the funniest public affairs analyst since Walter Lippmann, and he's a tad less scatological than the Hon. Howard Stern. As one may surmise from the title, ad hominem is his modus operandi, and he attacks with a wonderful lack of civility. To be sure, it's the nutcakes on the political right, the religious bigots, and the paranoid paramilitary that he disses, and he does it with two murderous weapons: satire and facts. Franken's sarcasm is an assault weapon fired at the Goodyear blimp (not to be confused with the title character): "If you ask me, the man who has the easiest job in America is Rush Limbaugh's fact checker.'' Colin Powell, Arlen Specter, and Ross Perot, along with Newt, Phil Gramm, and the rest of the men on white horses are treated to the comic's scorn. (He traces Gingrich's theory of sedentary woman versus giraffe- hunting man to its ostensible source in a 1955 Reader's Digest.) To be fair, he also discusses Mr. Clinton, the "greatest president of the twentieth century'' [sic] and reveals the scoop on a Renaissance Weekend with the prexy.
From an admitted wiseass liberal, and surely not to the taste of the current political majority, this is the kind of one-sided discourse we need more of. Complete with a preemptive New York Times book review and an index that is absolutely independent of the text (ranging from "Ailes, Roger, fat like Limbaugh,'' through "outhouse, Limbaugh as big as,'' to "zeppelin, Limbaugh, size of'').Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-385-31474-4
Page Count: 275
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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