An amusing, cathartic political satire.
A farcical guide for the aspiring autocrat during a time of democratic decline.
According to author Jackson, democracy is in a global downward spiral, though it’s never shown much promise and has historically been a “mostly ineffective method of managing humanity.” The good news, though, is that the arrant failure of self-governance has unambiguously exposed the idiocy of mankind. Which means there is ample opportunity for the would-be “future despot” to rule with aplomb. Jackson wryly notes the many forms of authoritarianism: “theocracy, dictatorship, military junta, homeowner’s association (HOA), shogunate, caudillo, autocracy, despotism, PTA president, hedge fund CEO, tsarism, and Ellen DeGeneres.” The book comprises three parts: a brief and equally cursory history of democracy, counsel for the achievement of authoritarian control, and guidance for its maintenance once achieved. Jackson covers an astonishing swath of territory for a relatively short book—under 200 pages. He discusses the authoritarian’s proper diet, the wise use of Twitter, and the importance of propaganda. He even discusses the proper attire for a tyrant, delivering one of the many humorous lines in the book: “Communism gave the world many things: Gulags, The Red Scare, Proxy Wars, and Joseph McCarthy. However, perhaps one of the greatest gifts that it gave was the pants suit.” This aptly captures the general spirit of the book—light nihilism designed to entertain rather than edify. And following in the footsteps of Machiavelli or Swift, he is deeply irreverent, discussing the pros and cons of genocide. The cleverness can wear thin occasionally, and the book sometimes feels like a comedy routine taken too far. By its conclusion, the reader might not have increased their understanding of history, but they will have certainly learned the tyrant’s playbook from an author who skewers everyone from Adolph Hitler to Elon Musk. A compendium of tyrants is included.
An amusing, cathartic political satire.Pub Date: May 12, 2022
ISBN: 979-8218004811
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Sometimes funny, sometimes silly, sometimes quite sad—i.e., an accurate portrait of life in one's 50s.
The further adventures of Candace and her man-eating friends.
Bushnell (Killing Monica, 2015, etc.) has been mining the vein of gold she hit with Sex and the City (1996) in both adult and YA novels. The current volume, billed as fiction but calling its heroine Candace rather than Carrie, is a collection of commentaries and recounted hijinks (and lojinks) close in spirit to the original. The author tries Tinder on assignment for a magazine, explores "cubbing" (dating men in their 20s who prefer older women), investigates the "Mona Lisa" treatment (a laser makeover for the vagina), and documents the ravages of Middle Aged Madness (MAM, the female version of the midlife crisis) on her clique of friends, a couple of whom come to blows at a spa retreat. One of the problems of living in Madison World, as she calls her neighborhood in the city, is trying to stay out of the clutches of a group of Russians who are dead-set on selling her skin cream that costs $15,000. Another is that one inevitably becomes a schlepper, carrying one's entire life around in "handbags the size of burlap sacks and worn department store shopping bags and plastic grocery sacks....Your back ached and your feet hurt, but you just kept on schlepping, hoping for the day when something magical would happen and you wouldn't have to schlep no more." She finds some of that magic by living part-time in a country place she calls the Village (clearly the Hamptons), where several of her old group have retreated. There, in addition to cubs, they find SAPs, Senior Age Players, who are potential candidates for MNB, My New Boyfriend. Will Candace get one?
Sometimes funny, sometimes silly, sometimes quite sad—i.e., an accurate portrait of life in one's 50s.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8021-4726-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Provides a human face, both beautiful and scarred, for the undocumented—a must-read.
2003 Pulitzer Prize–winning author Nazario’s critically acclaimed book Enrique’s Journey, a heart-wrenching account of one young man’s journey to migrate illegally from Honduras to the United States to find the mother who left when he was 5, has been newly adapted for young people.
Nazario’s vividly descriptive narrative recreates the trek that teenage Enrique made from Honduras through Mexico on the tops of freight trains. This adaptation does not gloss over or omit the harrowing dangers—beatings, rape, maiming and murder—faced by migrants coming north from Central America. The material is updated to present current statistics about immigration, legal and illegal, and also addresses recent changes in the economic and political climates of the U.S., Mexico and Honduras, including the increased danger of gang violence related to drug trafficking in Mexico. The book will likely inspire reflection, discussion and debate about illegal immigration among its intended audience. But the facts and figures never overwhelm the human story. The epilogue allows readers who are moved by Enrique to follow the family’s tragedies and triumphs since the book’s original publication; the journey does not end upon reaching the United States.
Provides a human face, both beautiful and scarred, for the undocumented—a must-read. (epilogue, afterword, notes) (Nonfiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0385743273
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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