BAWL: The Librarian by Larry Beinhart (622 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 6 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (View user info) at 2006-04-21 11:40:11 EDT
I have probably cried more while watching The West Wing than any other show. I also cry repeatedly during The American President, except for at the sappy romance parts. I get particularly broken up and sobby when he gives the speech at the end about how Richard Dreyfuss can go fuck himself because he IS the American President. I also cry during Dave, Bulworth, Wag the Dog and All the President's Men. No one should cry over Bulworth - not for emotional reasons, anyway. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington is a goddamn holocaust. I am also not allowed to watch C-Span of any kind unless I am alone in the house, and I am not allowed to watch it at my parents' house, either. CNN's regular coverage is SOMETIMES okay.
I grew up in Massachusetts, where every drunk in Southie falls off their barstool on Election Day and votes for Ted Kennedy without fail. Every so often, we find the one remaining Republican who hasn't run for the hills and elect him governor. Even if he is named after sporting equipment. I am also a nerd, and have voted in every election I could find, from the President to the local dog catcher. I used to keep CNN on all the time on my TV, until it got so stupid I couldn't deal. I listen to NPR on the way to work. There was a time when I read 23 newspapers a week - the Washington Post, New York Times, and USA Today every day, plus the Boston Globe on Fridays (when I could swipe it from work before my boss got to it) and the Washington Times on Thursdays. Now I read the NYT online and the local paper online.
This is all a long way of explaining that I am just not going to be able to review this book in a way that is not glaringly liberal. When I write speeches, I charge conservatives slightly more, not because I hate them and think they need extermination, but because it takes more work for me to write convincingly in a vein that is not my own. I am not getting paid for these. So no offense, but hell if I'm going to force myself to pretend I like the political atmosphere right now for free.
This is a book written by an angry liberal. It is the same guy who wrote the book Wag the Dog is based on. He doesn't like the back-room subterfuge, the chest-beating patriotism that obscures civil liberties, the Old Boys Club that comprises much of the conservative aura. He thinks conservatives suck. It's glaringly obvious, and it would be incredibly off-putting if not for the fact that...dude can write. He's a great writer, much in the same neighborhood of Dan Brown. What I like about the style of the illustrious Mr. Brown is that each chapter has a definitive end - not that I love the "And then he opened the door." <new chapter> theory of suspense - that lets you read the book easily in parts if you, for instance, have a life. I read this book in the 4 hours I had between leaving work and my small business class. I left it in the car and would bust it out at Starbucks while I was killing time, and it's written tightly enough that I didn't forget everything between readings.
The story follows a man who is tapped to organize and catalog a rich lobbyist's personal library, with the intent of making it open to the public upon the successful election of a Republican candidate modeled after George W. Bush. Exactly after George W. Bush. Like, putting the fictional President on the ground on September 11th. The rich library owner is painted more as a political dabbler who happens to like bossing people around and smooth-operating his way into more and more power. It seems a little goofy to not call a spade a spade, but with the rise of people exactly like this in politics - people with specific interests who recognize government and politics as a means to their preferred end - it fits well. The librarian is horrified to find himself in the middle of a vast election rigging, as the rich guy and his cohorts set up the Vietnam-military-nurse female candidate to lose, only to be met with a fight they never expected. Upon the Librarian's discovery of the plot, he finds himself pursued by the muscle of this pack of shadow-men, and struggling with the reality of reality.
Much like Dan Brown, Beinhart uses this book to make a hero of the quiet, reserved, brainy star of the book. When you're kind of a nerd, you don't get to shoot guns a lot, or get into pissing matches with ex-special-forces assassins or other things like this. The reality of spies is that they are nerds, but quiet ones. Beinhart obviously relates to his character, and he makes him - and by extentsion, Beinhart himself - into a James Bond style superhero. He gets the girl, he foils the bad guys, he outsmarts everyone. Who wouldn't want to be that guy?
He also uses the book to vent his frustrations with the current Administration and the state of politics, particularly the Republican side. I don't really subscribe to the whole "conservatives are all about the backroom deals" concept because EVERYONE does it - they have to - I think conservatives are just more likely to be the type of person who doesn't mind admitting it. After all, they are conserving traditions, and smoke filled rooms are certainly traditional for politics. He uses the opposing candidate to call out the incumbent the way a lot of liberals wish Kerry or any of the others would have - hanging him with his own record and history. I actually got goosebumps while reading the story of the big debate between them. It's probably worth noting here that I got stuck outside my apartment while reading Seabiscuit because I was absorbed in the book and couldn't manage to read and operate the lock at the same time, so...I get into books. But it's good writing, if occasionally over the top, with great twists and turns and weird characters. It's worth picking up, mostly for liberals, but also for those generally disenchanted with the political system in America. Another good beach book, I would say.
User Reviews
Submitted by AlwaysAnEagle (user info) at 2006-04-21 19:07:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yay!
Thanks guys, it's good to know my review motivated you to actually check the book out. Enjoy!
Submitted by Durae (user info) at 2006-04-21 16:47:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
*requests The Librarian from her library*
Submitted by Cyrus (user info) at 2006-04-21 15:33:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice review. Go Librarians!
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2006-04-21 12:53:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well written. Now I want to read it.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2006-04-21 12:19:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm gonna go get it.
Submitted by professorfuckface (user info) at 2006-04-21 11:46:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
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