Rating: 
Summary: An outraged wail over a breach of faith
Review: Author/screenwriter Joe Eszterhas is a child of the 60's and 70's reared, by his own admission, on a steady diet of sex, drugs and rock `n' roll. Curiously, his first political hero was Senator/Presidential Candidate Goldwater. Why? Because Barry told it like it was. But LBJ won and Viet Nam escalated, followed by Nixon and Watergate. The lies were endless, and Joe was disgusted. Then, in 1992, along came William Jefferson Clinton, America's first President of the rock `n' roll generation. Eszterhas was ecstatic. Bill won't lie because "he's one of us".AMERICAN RHAPSODY is a powerful, bawdy, brilliant, full-frontal excoriation of Bill Clinton's almost-personal betrayal of the author's hopes and expectations. Because Bubba lied to America - about sex, his preoccupation with it, and his tawdry affair with the First Bimbo, Monica Lewinsky. Joe claims the bulk of the narrative is based on well-researched facts, though there's no bibliography of primary source material - a key omission, perhaps. Several of the chapters, presented in bold type, are admittedly fictitious monologues ascribed to several key players in this red, white and blue soap opera. As Eszterhas explores Bubba's promiscuity specifically, and that of Washington and Hollywood in general, the lead roles are reserved for Bill, "Willard", and Monica. The supporting cast is otherwise extensive: Hillary, Bob Dole, John McCain, James Carville, Arianna Huffington (the "Sorceress"), Matt Drudge, Linda Tripp (the "Ratwoman"), Ken Starr, Bob Packwood, Sharon Stone, Warren Beatty, Larry Flynt, and Vernon Jordan, plus cameos by Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, and a bevy of others. The author ascribes particular significance to the lasting and pernicious influence of his personal bogeyman-under-the-bed, Richard Nixon (the "Night Creature). Why this is apparently so really isn't clear. (Get over it, Joe! Nixon is dead for Chrissakes!) And the reasons for including the Huffingtons, Dole, and McCain on the playbill are particularly hazy, although Eszterhas clearly admires the take-no-prisoners honesty of both McCain and Carville. Prominent utilization is also made of the two infamous props of the piece: The Cigar and the Stained Blue Dress. Though it could've benefited from tighter editing, AMERICAN RHAPSODY is a ribald, spirited, cheeky and fun read. It may stand as one of the definitive books on the Clinton Presidency. However, don't expect it to appear on your child's high school Political Science reading list anytime soon.
Rating:
Summary: Witty
Review: By Dan Moreland This book purports to rip the lid off the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and pull no punches. The problem is, like a barefisted 30 round fight from days of old, this book does not seem to end. The first half of "Rhapsody" is a quick and furious read as you learn about all the supposed dirty secrets there are behind Slick Willie. But then just as Bill Clinton is a victim of his own manhood, so is Esztherhas a victim of his own sexual-political self "fulfillment". Is "American Rhapsody" a brilliant recounting of the defining political crisis of the 1990s or a sweating Joe Esztherhas acting out his sickest fetishes over a typewriter? "Rhapsody" may be a bit of both. Some chapters are absolutely brilliant, especially the ones about Richard Nixon (or the "Night Creature" as Esztherhas calls him). But others are tiresome. There's puritan Ken Starr agonizing over writing the pornographic Starr Report. The "fictional" character repeats over and over again "I never cheated on my wife, Oh Lord!" as if the writer needed to fill more pages as specified in his contract. After about 200-250 pages, boredom wins over voyeuristic titillation. You get tired of hearing about how Clinton raped this woman, got sexual favors from another, and did this and that to himself in the Presidential washroom. Several times Esztherhas becomes his "evil alter ego" and writes "fictional" chapters by Al "Gorf" and Hillary Clinton revealing their innermost thoughts. On the surface this appears to be a brilliant literary device, but you quickly learn it's just an excuse for Esztherhas to ooze more filth all over the pages, and it gets real old real quick. AR is hard to classify; it's listed as non-fiction even though there are fictional parts in it. I hope Esztherhas can prove everything he is insinuating- Hillary Clinton may be bi-sexual and Arianna Ruffington is an evil black window, or "The Sorceress from Hell" as the book describes her. Truth or not, here's another tiresome aspect of this tome. After a while you realize in Joe Esztherhas' world no one escapes clean. Even heroes are subject to a few literary cheap shots by the screenwriter. Sorry Joe. James Ellroy brilliantly peers into the darkest cavity of human depravities. You just spout them off like you have tourets. In the end, you wonder what the point of all this is. To entertain? I guess. But usually when I am getting entertained, I enjoy good guys and bad guys. Eszterhas' good guys? People like Larry Flynt. Oh well. What else would you expect from a guy who wrote sleaze bag movies like "Jaded" and "Basic Instinct"? The author rips conservative spook Lucianne Goldberg as "the Bag Lady of Sleaze". That's funny he should write that. After reading this book, I turn to the back cover and see this gray, overweight longhaired failed hippie being photographed with his shirt wide open. Look in the mirror, Joe! The final "fictional" chapter is written by a part of Bill Clinton's anatomy. You can't help but wonder what part of the author's body ghostwrote that.
Rating: 
Summary: Get ready to blow your mind...
Review: Excuse the pun. You'll see why when you read this book. Man, this book is a fast-paced, hard-hitting, no holds barred, in-your-face account with raw, intimate, superbly described and researched details of events that took place in and around Washington (and Hollywood) prior to, during and after MonicaGate. MonicaGate is the basis of this book, with snippets of the taped conversations between Tripp and Lewinsky at the beginning of each chapter. But Eszterhas has also given us his reflections on all the juicy, sordid goings-on in Hollywood & Washington as well as his "takes" on the "thoughts" of certain key figures involved in MonicaGate. Which made me wonder throughout the book: How can he get away with this? Naming everyone's name, giving such intimate and often seemy information of what these people have done and said, exposing everyone and their mamas for the hypocritical, judgemental, pious peons they are. If he gets away with it, it must mean it's true and a lot of it must be documented somewhere or else Eszterhas would be sued to death! I kept asking myself, "Is this true?!? This can't be true!" It's hard to believe the things that go on in front of and behind closed doors! Which makes me say, everyone should read this book just to find out the truth of what went on during some of the most embarrassing incidents in modern American history. In this book, Eszterhas has brilliantly connected and cross-referenced and revealed and exposed so many of the facts that it has your head reeling and keeps you wanting for more. My gluttonous (sp?) appetite for more insider's knowledge of what goes on in the upper echelon of power in Washington and Hollywood only whetted. Mr. Eszterhas, give us another one like this but with your assault rifles targeted on Hollywood. Now that would be delicious!
Rating:
Summary: Gonzo Journalism disguised as Literature
Review: For all the hype surrounding the celebrity revelations in "American Rhapsody", its biggest shock is the excellence of its writing. This book will not languish on a shelf; the pages turn themselves as the narrative gains its thrilling, roller-coaster momentum. Form follows function: Joe Eszterhas has produced a deleriously self-indulgent read about the most self-indulgent public figures of our time. Eszterhas's language is more than bawdy, but thanks to characters like Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and even Sharon Stone, so are the events it narrates. The minutiae of the Lewinsky scandal is made surprisingly fresh when written over with Eszterhas's super-snide commentary, as he parses the contents of the "Starr Report" to produce vivid character studies of all the players. It is soon difficult not to regard the actual historical players as mere sock-puppets, only capable of speaking freely through the mouth of Eszterhas. Eszterhas has an extraordinary gift for appearing to voice the cynical subtext behind the most famous political utterances of the 1990s. Bill Clinton is Eszterhas's alter-ego, he believes, a fellow rock-n-roller who concealed just enough of his nature to make it to the White House. Nicknaming Linda Tripp and Lucienne Goldberg "The Ratwoman" and "The Bag Lady of Sleaze", Eszterhas plumbs the Clinton years for a whole new depth of black comedy. (Indeed, given Goldberg's wealth, I'm not even sure what "The Bag Lady of Sleaze" means, strictly speaking, but this new appelation locks in with the permanence of a well-chosen middle name.) Reaching into Election 2000, Eszterhas's outrageous portrait of George W. Bush as a rattlesnake, Alpo-male version of his father is unforgettable. You will never see W. Bush the same, once you have seen "com-pay-ssionate conservative" printed as it is spoken, which is an act of startling subversiveness that none of the zillions of Campaign 2000 journalists dared to perform. A single, Texan-accented word becomes the keyhole through which we peer into W.'s "philosophy". As W. is fond of saying, perhaps we should "take him at his word". Fact or fiction, in the final analysis? Who cares, when the reading is so diverting. Eszterhas taps into some deep poetic truths yielded from his close study of the American political scene. These poetic truths are larger than those yielded from any single historical text, hewn of majestic, marble fact. In a solitary volume, Eszterhas brings us all the essentials of the politics of our time.
Rating:
Summary: Gonzo Journalism disguised as Literature
Review: For all the hype surrounding the celebrity revelations in "American Rhapsody", its biggest shock is the excellence of its writing. This book will not languish on a shelf; the pages turn themselves as the narrative gains its thrilling, roller-coaster momentum. Form follows function: Joe Eszterhas has produced a deleriously self-indulgent read about the most self-indulgent public figures of our time. Eszterhas's language is more than bawdy, but thanks to characters like Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and even Sharon Stone, so are the events it narrates. The minutiae of the Lewinsky scandal is made surprisingly fresh when written over with Eszterhas's super-snide commentary, as he parses the contents of the "Starr Report" to produce vivid character studies of all the players. It is soon difficult not to regard the actual historical players as mere sock-puppets, only capable of speaking freely through the mouth of Eszterhas. Eszterhas has an extraordinary gift for appearing to voice the cynical subtext behind the most famous political utterances of the 1990s. Bill Clinton is Eszterhas's alter-ego, he believes, a fellow rock-n-roller who concealed just enough of his nature to make it to the White House. Nicknaming Linda Tripp and Lucienne Goldberg "The Ratwoman" and "The Bag Lady of Sleaze", Eszterhas plumbs the Clinton years for a whole new depth of black comedy. (Indeed, given Goldberg's wealth, I'm not even sure what "The Bag Lady of Sleaze" means, strictly speaking, but this new appelation locks in with the permanence of a well-chosen middle name.) Reaching into Election 2000, Eszterhas's outrageous portrait of George W. Bush as a rattlesnake, Alpo-male version of his father is unforgettable. You will never see W. Bush the same, once you have seen "com-pay-ssionate conservative" printed as it is spoken, which is an act of startling subversiveness that none of the zillions of Campaign 2000 journalists dared to perform. A single, Texan-accented word becomes the keyhole through which we peer into W.'s "philosophy". As W. is fond of saying, perhaps we should "take him at his word". Fact or fiction, in the final analysis? Who cares, when the reading is so diverting. Eszterhas taps into some deep poetic truths yielded from his close study of the American political scene. These poetic truths are larger than those yielded from any single historical text, hewn of majestic, marble fact. In a solitary volume, Eszterhas brings us all the essentials of the politics of our time.
Rating: 
Summary: ?????
Review: I tend to vote Republican but refuse to align myself with the Right Wing or Moral Majority. I'm the guy in the middle that the candidates are really after. I say that as any review on this book should be tempered by the politics of the reader. JE is an avowed Democrat with socialist leanings. Read his most recent book "American Animal" to verify this. So it was surprising as I read the first third of this book that after an initial bow to Clinton as the Rock & Roll Prez, one of "us", he then seems to chastise him for his fatal flaws. This part of the book is interesting, engaging, but also somewhat repetitive. I still couldn't wait to read it my allotted hour a night. But there is only so much you can talk about this subject and JE rambles on and on until he finally manages to really offend me. How? Well, I just finished his most recent book, "American Animal" an autobiography which I immensely enjoyed. Full of Hollywood stories. But reading this, I see that JE has included many of the stories I enjoyed from his autobiography in this political commentary/fantasy. So is he a writer with a message or is he just repeating his few stories to make a buck? I don't know what to make of this book, thus my title. Did I enjoy some parts? Yes. Are there some interesting stories? Yes. But there is a lot of waste. It's like wandering thru a jungle with a machete looking for your trail. When you find it, it's worth the work. So maybe the only item I can add of interest came from reading this with some years of aging. JE takes on Arianna Huffington who he spends quite a bit of time describing her history to show what a bad person she is and how she climbed to the top while stepping on other people's faces. But would JE have included these chapters in this form if he had known that within a few years she would shift sides and now disavow her right wing leanings? I think not. This is not a great book. But if you enjoy reading, maybe you will enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: ?????
Review: I tend to vote Republican but refuse to align myself with the Right Wing or Moral Majority. I'm the guy in the middle that the candidates are really after. I say that as any review on this book should be tempered by the politics of the reader. JE is an avowed Democrat with socialist leanings. Read his most recent book "American Animal" to verify this. So it was surprising as I read the first third of this book that after an initial bow to Clinton as the Rock & Roll Prez, one of "us", he then seems to chastise him for his fatal flaws. This part of the book is interesting, engaging, but also somewhat repetitive. I still couldn't wait to read it my allotted hour a night. But there is only so much you can talk about this subject and JE rambles on and on until he finally manages to really offend me. How? Well, I just finished his most recent book, "American Animal" an autobiography which I immensely enjoyed. Full of Hollywood stories. But reading this, I see that JE has included many of the stories I enjoyed from his autobiography in this political commentary/fantasy. So is he a writer with a message or is he just repeating his few stories to make a buck? I don't know what to make of this book, thus my title. Did I enjoy some parts? Yes. Are there some interesting stories? Yes. But there is a lot of waste. It's like wandering thru a jungle with a machete looking for your trail. When you find it, it's worth the work. So maybe the only item I can add of interest came from reading this with some years of aging. JE takes on Arianna Huffington who he spends quite a bit of time describing her history to show what a bad person she is and how she climbed to the top while stepping on other people's faces. But would JE have included these chapters in this form if he had known that within a few years she would shift sides and now disavow her right wing leanings? I think not. This is not a great book. But if you enjoy reading, maybe you will enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Take this book...please
Review: Joe Eszterhas certainly suffers from what the hippy/baby boomer generation are accused of suffering from: self-absorption. Good God, does he love his own opinions! He reminds me of Geraldo Rivera here: they both talk about all the women they used to sleep with, pretending to be ashamed and repentant, when the subtext the whole time screams, "Ain't I a stud!" They are pretending to be "confessing," when all they're doing is bragging. He takes Clinton to task, but he also accuses Americans of being too puritannical. (The French think we are too puritannical about Clinton. But then the French said, "In France, Watergate would have been forgotten in three days.") And read NO ONE LEFT TO LIE TO by Christopher Hitchens. You'll see that Linda Tripp saved Monica Lewinsky by taping her and urging her to save the blue dress. The Clinton White House was just starting on a smear campaign accusing Lewinsky of fantasizing it all, and stalking Clinton...when that blue dress appeared, that made the campaign stop before it started. It's absolute sacrilege to say so, But Linda Tripp saved Lewinsky's butt. Not the opinion in this book. Eszterhas reminds me of Norman Mailer. He's a dirty old man who pretends to be preoccupied with sex for intellectual reasons...when in fact he's just a lech. Read Harry Stein's HOW I ACCIDENTALLY JOINED THE RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY AND FOUND INNER PEACE before you read this one. It gives the best take on Clinton I've read yet.
Rating:
Summary: Thank God for Joe Eszterhas!
Review: Joe Eszterhas tries to do at least three things with AMERICAN RHAPSODY. The first, which he does best, is make the point as salaciously as possible that the behavior of Bill Clinton, especially (but not exclusively) with Monica Lewinski resulted in the election of George W. Bush. While this book is not about policy, the premise Eszterhas starts with is, "if Clinton was a great policy president, his behavior produced a successor who is in the process of more than reversing Clinton's achievements." Eszterhas never spells it out this way - that would be far too blunt. Instead, he subtly makes his point amidst prurience that is anything but subtle. In this respect, the book is nearly brilliant. Was Monica scandal about sex, lies and debauchery? Here's a version that's even more sleazy than the STAR REPORT. It still wasn't about those things. Were the Republicans scum? Here the Republicans were even scummier than the Democrats, who are portrayed by Eszterhas as pretty scummy. This is still beside the point. The point, I think Eszterhas was trying to make, was that the whole thing reversed all of what Clinton worked for. (Don't believe anyone who claims that this book is pro-Clinton. Eszterhas offers passing acceptance of Clinton's policy record and intentions as unimpeachable is meant as a, "So what if it is?" He's trying to make the point that even if you support Clinton's policies, the sex scandals were unforgivable - all the more so). If Eszterhas hits a high mark with his larger point, AMERICAN RHAPSODY's own excess keep it from greatness. Its excesses cannot be found in the book's dirty language, rumor-mongering and other trashy aspects. Eszterhas uses those things with more artistic merit here than he does in his movies. But Eszterhas needs an editor. He manages to stuff every idea that seemed good at the time into this overly-long book. The last 50 pages or so are particularly unnecessary, but really fat can be found throughout the book. Eszterhas other fault is his third goal, to tell the truth with fictional interludes which contrast the journalistically acceptable "true" narrative, which may or may not be believable. This is a shot at the media - Eszterhas, a fictional storyteller, is trying to show that he can get to the heart of the matter better than new-media journalists. Like the first point, there's a subtly to how Eszterhas attempts this point, but his frequent lapses into self-proclaimed fiction get old quickly. Fiction and non-fiction don't mix. Its not a device used often - and now I know why. But the best of AMERICAN RHAPSODY is worthwhile. The incident it covers is absurd, deserving of the absurdist rendition Eszterhas offers. I can imagine AMERICAN RHAPSODY enduring as an account of the Monica matter.
Rating:
Summary: Sordid Story from the Screenwriter of Sleaze
Review: The first novel from the screenwriter of "Basic Instinct" and "Showgirls" is this lewd, lurid recounting of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. Most of the book is a seemingly endless recounting of L'Affair Clinton, including every story, fact, rumor, lie, and God knows what else. Apparently Eszterhas basically stole most of this information from other people's books (Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinsky, etc.). Very little of it is original. As I had feared, the author has nothing new to say about this saga. It's the same tabloid trash that you've heard a hundred times before. His only original contributions are composed of long imagined dialogues from Bill Clinton's penis, pornographic fantasies of Kenneth Starr, and similar failures at hilarity. "American Rhapsody" is not a boring book. It contains passages that will make you laugh, passages that will make you sick, and passages that will make you mad. This is inflammatory material and it's no great trick to make it provocative. It was, however, more of a trick to make it into a good book that Eszerthas could manage.
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