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Summary: Boom-box rhythms and wickedly funny perspectives
Review: Joe Eszterhas is my new hero. I could not stop laughing, reading to others, reading outloud to myself. I have read American Rhapsody twice. Loved the book, loved Joe. More books, please.
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Summary: From OURHAS to ESZTERHAS
Review: Have the cultural and political realities changed THAT MUCH since Robert Coover's "The Public Burning"? Certainly imagination and intellect reigned, in creating the absurd images of a chicken hawk Uncle Sam, and the unlikely sexual fantasies of Richard Nixon. "American Rhapsody", however, is a cut-and-paste offering with selections from Hollywood Confidential and The Starr Report, that anyone could construct, leading one to wonder if satire has become reality. How can anyone be expected to top "...it depends on what the definition of 'is' is" and "...about the diameter of a quarter."? Of course Eszterhas does not seek to ridicule the president, he seeks to praise him...by muddying the waters with an inappropriate literary engine having the opposite effect on the reader. He should be reminded of what Mark Twain once said: "That which is satirized is loathed."
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Summary: Wolfe, Thompson & Roth
Review: Sure it's sleazy and overemphasizes the gory details (and that's putting it mildly!). But Eszterhas can write in a way that is not immediately apparent from having seen Showgirls et al. This books is SATIRE and like it or not captures a spirit of a generation that puts the whole Lewinsky fiasco in the proper perspective. This book reminds me of Wolfe's "Radical Chic", Thompson's "...Hell's Angels" or even Roth's "Our Gang". I actually felt sorry for Clinton after having read this book. He's a creature of his own appetites and is unfortunately all too representative of his own cross-section of society. Eszterhas makes the observation that Clinton's true peer group is the rock-n-roll, far left set that ended up invading hollywood, music and almost every other segment of society---why not the white house, too? You gotta love the "Rat Woman" caricature. It sums up many people's feelings so well. My personal favorite was his not-so-subtle characterization of Nixon as "The Night Creature". I liked his Nixon much better than Oliver Stone's. I might be smoking something (without inhaling, of course), but I think that this book shows real talent and a deft hand at skewering that has been absent from the literary scene for a couple of decades. I enjoyed it very much, even though I was prepared to sneer. It did however, need some serious editing and would have been a much, much better book if about 25% of it had been cut.
Rating:
Summary: Yellow Journalism
Review: Mr. Eszterhas has managed to trash not only the people in the White House but in Hollywood as well. Page after page of gossip tidbits and name dropping until the mind becomes numbed. In the end, none of the "stunning expose's" in this book were really interesting or necessary. Mr. Eszterhas may have used a fact checker but he certainly did not use a good taste meter. Most of the material in this book was suitable at best for the Jerry Springer show or the National Enquirer.
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Summary: The rapid-fire narrative creates a sharper focus
Review: Sure we all read the papers and were glued to the tv throughout the Lewinsky period. But, it takes a masterful author like Esterhaus to tie it all together in a narrative form which races at a breathtaking stream of consciousness pace to make sense of it all. Esterhaus sees Clinto as our first "rock n roll" president who grew up on the music and the rebellion, sex, and drugs that went with it. He was a brilliant politician and the author thinks he was a great president but he brings his background with him to the highest office in the land. This book makes the connections. And they are all plausible: The music, the players, the rebellion against community standards, the bachanallian sex, drugs and what ever. It may be old news but this book puts a brand new shiny spin on it. And, it's not as pornographic as the Starr Report.
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Summary: I LOVED THIS BOOK ON TAPE!
Review: OUTRAGEOUS AND HILARIOUS.THE FUNNIEST BOOK ON TAPE EVER DONE.THIS PRODUCTION IS BRILLIANT...BILL MAHER,ARTIE JOHNSON,DEBORRAH RAFFIN.MELISSA GILBERT,EDWARD ASNER ETC.ALL ARE BRILLIANT.TWENTY ONE HOURS ALL OF THEM HILARIOUS.
Rating: 
Summary: Delicious
Review: If you are a very sensitive person, you may find it difficult to finish this book. It has no real plot, just chapter after delicious chapter of fun facts and excellent writing about politics and the dirty tricks and underwear of those we elect to serve. Maybe the premise of this book is "Men are Pigs." I agree with some of the reviewers that this book makes you want to take a shower; however, I did find it fascinating and fun to read, particularly the "fictional" chapters where Mr. Esterhas has his way with everybody. What a hoot. This is a fun book. You will find yourself wanting to read selected portions to others.
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Summary: Someone Keeps Stealing My Book!
Review: I'm a 38-year-old woman and live in an apartment complex. My friend insisted I read this book and I've become obsessed with it...It's the funniest thing I've ever read and the most shocking! The problem is, I've been reading it by the pool and twice I've gone back to find someone's lifted it! I can't believe how insightful, funny and even somtimes heartbreaking this book is. It's an emotional roller-coaster that keeps me riveted. I finally finished it yesterday (in my car -- it made me late for work!) The ending is phenominal. Worth buying three times. I can't wait for Joe's next book...
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Summary: Proust, Hunter Thompson, & Joyce: A NC-17 Delight
Review: Wouldn't it be cool to have the condensed opposition briefing booksfor both Gore, Bush I & II, Clinton, McCain, Nixon, and Starr inone brief volume. Already Time and Newsweek have used it withoutattribution for their special issues on the Republicrat conventions.There is even a special chapter on Adriana Huffington who is leadingthe non-Nader non-Buchanan non-convention commentaries.A comment,there are no footnotes, there is no index, because every factoid istrue, even the ones in the bold face inside john malkovichfantasies....As to literary style, Exzterhas makes Molly Ivans looklike a prissy school marm, Maureen Doud becomes charming, and the WallSt. Journal editorial page like an offshoot of Doonesbury. This catbelongs on the printed page and not between the wife of the nowdefunct Hearst paper's editors' thighs, ala Silver on the halfshell.....The description of Shrub's departure from Jack Danielsrings loud and clear. Missing is Ann Richard's welcome to Bob Bullockwhen the most powerful politican in Texas returned from detox.Between Richards, Bullock, Bush, and Tower, Texas has a lock onrecovering alcoholics. Sad to say, the Queen Mother still has herbottle of gin per day but with a matching colosotomy bag.If onewants one clear vision of what the country will be like if either Goreor Bush win the election, this slender volume is it. He does overdwell on Nixon's Monica, and not enough on the elder Bush's Gennifer.And he does make Dominick Dunne look like a rank auteur in the gossipclass, e.g. a third rate Lis Smith. So let's cheer for the paralyzededitor of Hustler who saved Bill from impeachment. And don't forget tocheck Newt Gingrich's wedding site at Macy's. The portrait of Jordanalone makes the price of admission reasonable. This is the onlyMonica book that dives into the Starr footnote on "oral-analsex" and cheerfully explains it for South Carolina Bob Joneselite....James Carville as the bastard half-brother of HunterThompson, too good not to be true.AMDG Æ
Rating:
Summary: Pure trash
Review: Admittedly, I bought this book out of prurient interest. I finally had to quit reading, though, because it was just too disgusting. JE comes off as a toady, a hanger-on, to the smarmy goon that respectable folks avoid. His style is a shallow paen to the psuedo-intelligent drug-crazed rantings of Hunter S. Thompson.He lovingly details, not only Clinton's sexual peccadillos, but his own, as well. While his enthusiasm for Clinton is based in the "He's one of Us" (meaning a member of the sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll culture of Jan Wenner's RS crowd) his demonization of those opposed to Clinton and his behavior is baseless. JE portrays Clinton as cool because he gratifies himself during phone sex with Monica but paints an image of Ken Starr that reaches its nadir with an allusion to onanistic guilt over the descriptions of Clinton's behavior. It's a broad-brush approach: BAD is cool and GOOD is uncool and UNCOOL is Un-American. I'm no goody-goody; I was definitely a product of the 60's and 70's. A whole lot of drugs and a whole lot of one-night stands (and I'm not even a successful movie writer!) But I've grown up. Aren't we supposed to mature beyond self-destructive behavior? Isn't it OK to expect - or at least hope for - better behavior from ourselves and our leaders? The terminally-hip sets of Hollywood and Manhatten will probably roll on the floor with the sophomoric sex-and-drugs humor of this book. Everyone else will probably feel the need to put it down and take a shower (or three.)
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