Flynt’s rude, but he’s got the goods.
From “a smut peddler who cares,” a vigorous broadside against American hypocrisy.
“They call me a bottom feeder, and it’s true, but look what I found at the bottom,” declares Hustler magazine publisher Flynt. What he found—and backs up with the best checkbook journalism—is a pit of sexual, political, and ethical hypocrisy in which the guardians of our moral purity can often enough be found egregiously transgressing, from Bob Livingston to Henry Hyde, Bob Barr to Dan Burton to independent counsel Kenneth Starr. Flynt made his boodle in the sex trade, so he is open to conflict-of-interest charges when he spouts such comments as, “People who have a nice, healthy connection to their crotch have a better connection between the head and their heart,” or, “in a land of sexually healthy people we'd have less crime, less poverty, less divorce, less drug use—and fewer right-wing Republicans,” but he is spot-on when he points out that tirades about sexual depravity have drawn attention away from the politics of vested interests to the folderol of George Bush’s tax cuts. Readers don’t have to subscribe to Flynt’s lifestyle to appreciate that his money can dig up the dirt on the hypocrites. The author comes across as a well-read citizen, as adroit in damning and praising the New York Times as he is in dismissing more obvious targets like Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham. His thoughts on the incompetence of intelligence agencies were written long before the recent revelations, and he is equally astute on the crony capitalism saturating the war in Iraq and the make-believe politics of the Bush presidency, which started with a make-believe election and has brought us the make-believe liberation of a nation.
Flynt’s rude, but he’s got the goods.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-7582-0483-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
A clear and candid contribution to an essential conversation.
Straight talk to blacks and whites about the realities of racism.
In her feisty debut book, Oluo, essayist, blogger, and editor at large at the Establishment magazine, writes from the perspective of a black, queer, middle-class, college-educated woman living in a “white supremacist country.” The daughter of a white single mother, brought up in largely white Seattle, she sees race as “one of the most defining forces” in her life. Throughout the book, Oluo responds to questions that she has often been asked, and others that she wishes were asked, about racism “in our workplace, our government, our homes, and ourselves.” “Is it really about race?” she is asked by whites who insist that class is a greater source of oppression. “Is police brutality really about race?” “What is cultural appropriation?” and “What is the model minority myth?” Her sharp, no-nonsense answers include talking points for both blacks and whites. She explains, for example, “when somebody asks you to ‘check your privilege’ they are asking you to pause and consider how the advantages you’ve had in life are contributing to your opinions and actions, and how the lack of disadvantages in certain areas is keeping you from fully understanding the struggles others are facing.” She unpacks the complicated term “intersectionality”: the idea that social justice must consider “a myriad of identities—our gender, class, race, sexuality, and so much more—that inform our experiences in life.” She asks whites to realize that when people of color talk about systemic racism, “they are opening up all of that pain and fear and anger to you” and are asking that they be heard. After devoting most of the book to talking, Oluo finishes with a chapter on action and its urgency. Action includes pressing for reform in schools, unions, and local governments; boycotting businesses that exploit people of color; contributing money to social justice organizations; and, most of all, voting for candidates who make “diversity, inclusion and racial justice a priority.”
A clear and candid contribution to an essential conversation.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-58005-677-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Seal Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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