PLAIN SPEAKING: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman

by Merle Miller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 1973

It could be Lenny Bruce: after Castro Ike ""just sat on his ass. . . probably still waiting for a goddamn staff report on what to think."" Truman now, he'd have picked up his phone (never mind that protocol crap) and invited the hairy Cuban in for a chat ("" 'Fidel, it looks to me like you've had a pretty good revolution down there' ""), offered aid and done some hard bargaining: "" 'Fidel, I've told you what we'll do. . . there's one thing you can do for me. Would you get a shave and a haircut and take a bath?' "" HST, taped by Merle Miller through 1961-62 for a series none of the networks would buy. (Miller, On Being Different is at his best, as in Only You Dick Daring, when he's writing about abortive television shows.) Maybe it just isn't done on TV, having a former president who would, likely as not, call it like he saw it about the fools, the untouchables, the SOBs -- MacArthur, Chiang Kai-shek, Stevenson (so indecisive he couldn't even make up his mind to take a pee), Nixon (HST had him all figured out way back then), Joe Kennedy. Miller is partisan, Truman speaks his mind, and Miller doesn't press (i.e. about the Bomb). But somehow it doesn't matter. Plain Speaking has a nostalgic, downhome quality (like Margaret's book) of good friends gossiping over the back fence, or saying their piece of a twilight eve rocking on the porch -- and if those fellas back in Washington have their secret machines running, well, they won't like what they overhear. Not one little bit.

Pub Date: Feb. 4, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION