"Not another incisive book reviewer!" Tom said, critically.
At any rate, in the tradition of scrupulous honesty that characterizes all book blogging, Mr. Swift begins each review with the confidence-inspiring declaration that "I have not actually read this book, but ...." and then proceeds to make such trenchant observations as the following about Ana Marie Cox's Dog Days: "Most people nowadays write non-fiction books with bits of fiction secretly interspersed throughout, sort of like Where's Waldo for adults. But Ms. Cox has brilliantly turned this idea on its head and written a fiction book with bits of non-fiction secretly inserted into the text. I wonder if Oprah knows about this unique innovation."
Or this, about Ben Shapiro's Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism is Corrupting Our Future: "I don't plan to read a book that is basically pornography. I must confess that when I was a teenager we used to look at books like this, which claimed to condemn pornography and various perversions, but went into very explicit detail about them. We would mark the dirty parts and pass them around."
Mr. Swift proudly points out that, contra Amazon, his work has inspired serious comment, notably a spectacularly self-defeating whine/rant by Michael Fumento, author of Fat of the Land, and an admiring citation by the Uncyclopedia.
It's here that book/daddy took special interest --
"The P.I.G. series began with the publication of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, by Thomas E. Woods Jr. Woods's original thesis was that "History has been hijacked by second-rate community college assistant professors who often write alternate history to promote a personal ideological agenda." His ideas have since withstood criticism and are now accepted by the majority of historians in his immediate family."
And this:
"This short (around two pages) but powerful guide gives you everything you need to know about the Holocaust. Includes a Table of Contents and Index."
This would not be the first case of a cultural/political journalist touting his own work while in disguise, now would it?
Yes, of course, online deceit is exceedingly unusual, if not completely unheard of. Nonetheless, we bloggers must sadly but courageously acknowledge it on those rare occasions when it does happen (book/daddy is looking at you, Prince Neyere of Nigeria) and even when, maybe it isn't occurring at all, maybe it's a coincidence, maybe it's merely the faintest echo -- who can say in this crazy, mixed-up digital universe? But it's still worth pointing the finger and shouting "J'accuse!" anyway because, let's be honest, haven't we all wanted to do that at some time?
If not now, when? And if not online, where?
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Recommending
Richard Price's best novel since Clockers, Lush Life is a slice of life on the Lower East Side, complete with the ghetto kids, the new bohemians, the old Jews and the cops. A restaurant manager at 35 fears he's no longer the wannabe artiste who'd turn into a full-blown artiste some day. When he sees a younger version of himself get shot during a mugging (and then gets blamed by the cops), he comes apart. Price takes these cultures and stares through all of them. Lush Life is a crime novel, a terrific literary thriller, a sampler of Price's namebrand talents with dialogue and deadpan humor. Price is after more than just law-and-order, crime-and-punishment, justice-is-served. This is a portrait of big-city America..You think The Wire, Law and Order, the old Homicide are the best TV has to offer? This is all that -- between covers.
In Life Class, Booker Prize-winner Pat Barker returns to World War I, the setting for her magnificent Restoration trilogy. Where those novels followed shell-shocked poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfrid Owen through their convalescence, Life Class follows three painting students (based on real Slade School artists Christopher Nevinson and Paul Nash) as the war approaches. Elinor wants little to do with the war or with men: They're distractions from her art. Kit, a hot, young futurist, is primed for the war's industrialized destruction, while Paul flees his working-class background. As usual with Barker, the sexual relationships, war-time atmosphere and gruesome battlefield details are brilliantly conveyed: Her prose is lean but lyrical, compassionate yet cool-headed. No character is quite as compelling as Regeneration's bitter bisexual, Billy Prior, but the Great War's upheavals in art and combat, sex and class, provide Barker with material for exceptional historical novels. A new trilogy? One hopes so.
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