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The new novella, Checkpoint, by Nicholson Baker is stirring a little controversy. It is about a deranged liberal who is intent on assassinating President Bush. The publisher gives such a good synopsis that I'm going to copy it here.
( Publisher's synopsis )
Leon Wieseltier also gives a striking review for the NY Times. Mr. Wieseltier speaks out on the arguably rabid Bush hatred that exists among a lot of liberals - a sentiment manifested early on in the way the slogan "Anybody But Bush" caught on. He acknowledges how this sort of heated political sentiment has existed on the right - citing Rush Limbaugh as an example - but he thinks that it is regrettable that the Left has decided to meet them in the gutter:
"For the virulence that calls itself critical thinking, the merry diabolization of other opinions and the other people who hold them, the confusion of rightness with righteousness, the preference for aspersion to argument, the view that the strongest statement is the truest statement -- these deformations of political discourse now thrive in the houses of liberalism too. The radicalism of the right has hectored into being a radicalism of the left. The Bush-loving mob is being met with a Bush-hating mob. Liberals are forgetting why liberals are not radicals."
Neverthemore, Monk isn't expecially anxious to rush and get this novel. Mr. Baker also wrote Fermata, for which Monk had high hopes, being a novel about a guy who can stop time and uses this power to strip and grope women. Somehow Baker failed to make that a satisfying book - even for our lusty primate-protagonist!
It may be that Baker was caught up with political correctness when writng Fermata, and Monk does have some interest in this latest offering. If Dubya wins a second term, there is little doubt that Monk will make it part of his reading.
( Book Review )
The new novella, Checkpoint, by Nicholson Baker is stirring a little controversy. It is about a deranged liberal who is intent on assassinating President Bush. The publisher gives such a good synopsis that I'm going to copy it here.
( Publisher's synopsis )
Leon Wieseltier also gives a striking review for the NY Times. Mr. Wieseltier speaks out on the arguably rabid Bush hatred that exists among a lot of liberals - a sentiment manifested early on in the way the slogan "Anybody But Bush" caught on. He acknowledges how this sort of heated political sentiment has existed on the right - citing Rush Limbaugh as an example - but he thinks that it is regrettable that the Left has decided to meet them in the gutter:
"For the virulence that calls itself critical thinking, the merry diabolization of other opinions and the other people who hold them, the confusion of rightness with righteousness, the preference for aspersion to argument, the view that the strongest statement is the truest statement -- these deformations of political discourse now thrive in the houses of liberalism too. The radicalism of the right has hectored into being a radicalism of the left. The Bush-loving mob is being met with a Bush-hating mob. Liberals are forgetting why liberals are not radicals."
Neverthemore, Monk isn't expecially anxious to rush and get this novel. Mr. Baker also wrote Fermata, for which Monk had high hopes, being a novel about a guy who can stop time and uses this power to strip and grope women. Somehow Baker failed to make that a satisfying book - even for our lusty primate-protagonist!
It may be that Baker was caught up with political correctness when writng Fermata, and Monk does have some interest in this latest offering. If Dubya wins a second term, there is little doubt that Monk will make it part of his reading.
( Book Review )
