Synopsis
The humorist author of Remembering Denny and If You Can't Say Something Nice combines a selection of his outrageous, whimsical verses with personal anecdotes and astute political observations. 40,000 first printing. Tour.
Reviews
In an irreverent, hilarious romp, Trillin ( Uncivil Liberties ) wraps a running political and cultural commentary around the weekly topical verses he has written for the Nation since 1990. His barbed satirical poems and accompanying essays find their mark in deflating Quayle, Ross Perot, "Republonazi" David Duke and Margaret Thatcher. There are also witty verses on the Supreme Court's rightward drift, the reunification of Germany, Madonna, Father's Day and Princess Di. Trillin's coverage of the Bush-Clinton contest points up the triumph of image in presidential campaigns. Clinton's NAFTA legislation, his health care plan and his lurch to the center lead Trillin to observe that "Presidents sort of blend together, somewhere in the middle. . . . This seemed particularly true of Bill Clinton and George Bush."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The good, gray Trillin hangs up his prose pistols and rides forth as Poet in his seventeenth book, here collecting three years of comic political verse for The Nation. Best known for his Americana and true-crime stories in The New Yorker, for his fabulous food reportage from Kansas City, Louisiana, and elsewhere, and for Remembering Denny, his 1993 bestseller about a friend who committed suicide, Trillin may be a national treasure for his journalism as well as for his two witty one-man shows, which prompted Mel Gussow to dub him ``the Buster Keaton of performance humorists.'' Must doggerel be crude, unpolished, a dog's verse? Though the opening pages of his yappings leave something to be desired, his skills increase with use, although Trillin's funniest moment isn't poetry; it's his complaint about losing Alexander Haig as a fit object of ridoggericule as he watches Haig, like Shane on his white horse, ride out of town, leaving behind little Brandon de Trillin shouting, ``Haig! Haig! Please don't go, Haig! We need you, Haig! Come back, Haig!'' Trillin's father, a Kansas City restaurateur, devised rhymes for his menus (``Let's go, warden, I'm ready to fry/My last request was Mrs. Trillin's pie''), lending young Trillin a rhymer's background. Aside from a bouquet of general doggerel (``New movies, which are mostly dumb, are in the summer/Even dumber''), his subjects, not always treated fairly, he admits, include George Bush, the Reagans, Ross Perot, Mrs. Thatcher, Gorbachev, Clarence Thomas, Clark Clifford, Arafat, Clinton, Gore, Kuwait, and Saddam (``This guy who often said he'd smash us flat in one battle/Turned out to be what Texans call all hat and no cattle''). Let's call it fiddle faddle/between wisdom and a baby's rattle. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Ever notice that political-opinion journals all run poetry? And that it's all bad? The best that can be said of this bookful of humorist Trillin's rhymes upon emergent topics for The Nation is that it surrounds the verse with lots of prose commentary more or less on how each of the things came to be. Trillin is very definitely a far better prose writer than a versifier, but you'll have to downright worship his commas in order to not be distracted by just about anything--a fly, that low buzz in the kitchen you don't recall hearing before, wondering whether you should rotate your tires, remembering what you ate for lunch a week ago--while reading this numbing trifle from the acclaimed author of, most recently, Remembering Denny. Ray Olson
Most people know Trillin (Remembering Denny, LJ 3/15/93) as a columnist and essayist writing with humor and perception about a whole range of issues both political and personal. Most of his 16 books are collections of such essays tied together with anecdotal material that further add to our enjoyment. This collection is no different except that Trillin gathered a series of poems he wrote each week for the Nation starting in 1990 and continuing through President Clinton's first summer in office. Trillin's first political verse "If You Knew What Sununu" launched a new career for him, which included an unsuccessful bid for the position of poet laureate. Gathered here are poems that celebrate famous people who take themselves too seriously. As always, Trillin amuses and offers a lighthearted look at our world. Not an essential purchase, except where Trillin has a following. Collections of contemporary political science might also want to consider.
Denise Sticha, Carnegie Lib. of Pittsburgh
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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