Boldtype | February 2008


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February 2008:: issue 52

Books This Month
1.	The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
2.	The Book of Words by Jenny Erpenbeck
3.	In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
4.	Power and the Idealists: Or, the Passion of Joschka Fischer, and Its Aftermath by Paul Berman
5.	The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics by Matt Bai
6.	My Life in Politics by Tim Davis
	Feature: Before Blogging: Classic Campaign Journalism Book News Credits/About Us

Politics
As the US primaries reach a boiling point, we bring you a shortlist of worthy reading for the season. If you're burned out on coverage of the current election cycle, then dive into some of the classic campaign journalism recommended by the editor of Activate, our news-junkie sister publication. Naomi Klein's provocative new book exposes how social crises are exploited by a greedy few. Journalist Matt Bai lifts the hood of the Democratic Party to see what all the rumbling from below is about, while Tim Davis' wry photographs offer a pitch-perfect commentary on the cynical partisanship of our era. And for those skeptical of the entire political process, Michael Pollan reminds us that when real food is an endangered commodity, you can always vote with your fork.

- Toby Warner, Managing Editor

NONFICTION

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein


Published:	2007
Pages:	558
Publisher:	Metropolitan Books
Links: Author site NY Times review Guardian feature Democracy Now interview

“Exhaustively researched and written with the narrative sweep one might expect from great literature, The Shock Doctrine is a work of desperate urgency and seismic importance.”

Review
From Aristotle to John Locke, political theorists have long used the human body as a metaphor for the body politic. In The Shock Doctrine, journalist, Nation columnist, author, and filmmaker Naomi Klein takes up this brand of political synecdoche to devastating effect.

As Klein describes it in her book (and also in a short film on YouTube co-created with Children of Men director Alfonso Cuarón), the shock doctrine is put into effect when societies are shocked by a massive crisis — a war, recession, or tsunami, for example — and then shocked again by a swift, and often bloody, overhaul of their existing political and economic systems. The results are alarmingly consistent in the wake of such disasters: government industries and services are handed over to private corporations. The pattern can be seen in the US-backed dictatorships in '70s South America, the beachfront reconstruction of Sri Lanka, the new charter-school systems in New Orleans, and the astronomical growth of the private-defense industry.

In case after case, Klein shows how the history of free-market capitalism, as championed by the disciples of economist Milton Friedman (the original "Doctor Shock," as Klein calls him), is a history of disaster-profiteering — of crises exploited to place vast amounts of power and wealth into the hands of a greedy few (see Halliburton), while leaving entire populations in states of economic disrepair. Klein's account of CIA-funded electroshock-therapy experiments held in Canada in the '50s provides an eerie analogy for the lingering effects economic shock doctrines can have on entire nations. Regressive, schizophrenic, deeply troubled — these are characteristics one might ascribe to Iraq, as well as to a former victim of electroshock therapy.

Exhaustively researched and written with the narrative sweep one might expect from great literature, The Shock Doctrine is a work of desperate urgency and seismic importance. And for all its historical underpinnings, Klein's book is ultimately a window into what is happening right now, as market fundamentalists continue their disastrous march in the name of freedom and democracy.
- Mik Awake

FICTION

The Book of Words by Jenny Erpenbeck


Published:	2007
Pages:	93
Publisher:	New Directions
Links: Village Voice review Guardian review Bookforum review Translator bio

“Erpenbeck weaves a lifeline of continuity through this demanding narrative with bits of familiar rhymes and disco-era pop songs. The vibrant imagery takes on horrifying new meaning within the context of violence and war.”

Review
German writer Jenny Erpenbeck's The Book of Words is an economical and gorgeous prose-poem of a novel. Skillfully translated by Susan Bernofsky, the story centers on the interior life of a nameless girl growing up in an unidentified, war-torn town. As the child's growing mind processes the images around her, the reader gets fragmented, meandering, and finally troubling glimpses of her turbulent reality. Unsettling childhood nursery rhymes are interspersed with parental life lessons, as well as such daily activities as dressing for school and piano practice.

Soon, however, the world around her begins to reveal itself in small, but disturbing details: two men dragging a woman off a bus by her hair, the sound of gunshots, and another girl's hands getting chopped off. Once-familiar people and places begin to deteriorate or disappear, only to be papered over with excuses from her family. As the girl matures, she starts to understand her parents' mysteries and the importance of the family friends who surrounded her (seemingly innocuously) all her life.

Erpenbeck weaves a lifeline of continuity through this demanding narrative with bits of familiar rhymes and disco-era pop songs. The vibrant imagery of these references takes on horrifying new meaning within the context of violence and war. Bernofsky, in a very informative afterword, speculates on the specific time and place of this story. Erpenbeck's choice to withhold such details is powerful, because it stresses not the historical context or certain political opinions, but rather the coming-of-age of a young girl trying to situate and educate herself in a terribly unstable world.
- Diana Metzger

NONFICTION

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan


Published:	January 2008
Pages:	256
Publisher:	Penguin Press
Links: Author website NY Times article Slate review NPR interview

“Where scientists extol the benefits of beta-carotene, Pollan spins a stoic portrait of the carrot.”

Review
Why is there a book about eating in our Politics issue? Why doesn't a book subtitled An Eater's Manifesto get shelved with Family, or even... Food? The questions of what our dietary concerns are versus where they belong lie at the core of In Defense of Food. Here, Pollan explores how nearly 30 years of scientific studies on the relationship between food and health have left Americans increasingly confused about healthy eating.

For Pollan, "nutritionism" is an ideology that scientifically approaches food as the combination of good and bad nutrients, rather than as whole items. He contends that this mostly well-intentioned scientific discourse has robbed us of food itself, along with the instinctive pleasures of eating. Now the Western diet consists of "edible foodlike substances," which are essentially petri dishes of nutrients chemically rearranged by researchers and sold by popular slogans like "Low Carb!" or "Rich in Antioxidants!"

The book is the natural evolution of Pollan's 2006 best-selling The Omnivore's Dilemma, which revealed in plain terms where most of the food we eat comes from (answer: cornfields). In Defense of Food connects the dots from the cornfields to individual health, arguing that food is more than the sum of its nutritional parts. It simply cannot be taken apart and reconstructed according to marketing whims without deleterious results for our health. For example, when diet fads make fat the enemy, scientists take the fat out of butter, inject hydrogenated corn oil, and label it "low fat." But what does hydrogenated mean? And why is it better than fat? And has anybody done any research about how it mixes with toast?

Pollan's version of food's recent history (lenient labeling laws, abstract health guidelines, and blind faith in technology) suggests that we ended up in this half-baked supermarket of Burstin' Melon Berry Go-GURT and soy bacon bits thanks to scientists afflicted with a tunnel-vision obsession with protein and politicians stuck in a headlock courtesy of the beef lobby. But what, Pollan insists, do they know about eating? What do they know about health?

Where scientists extol the benefits of beta-carotene, Pollan spins a stoic portrait of the carrot. "Eat food," he advises, not nutrients. Campaign for your health. Vote with your fork.
- McKay McFadden

NONFICTION

Power and the Idealists: Or, the Passion of Joschka Fischer, and Its Aftermath by Paul Berman


Published:	2007
Pages:	317
Publisher:	W. W. Norton & Company
Links: Author bio NY Press interview NY Times review Nation review Washington Post review

“While complex and proudly biased, Power and the Idealists is a fascinating look at a generation as it matured.”

Review
In the '60s, baby boomers referred to the wonderful things that would happen "when the revolution comes" — that is, when they got into power. Though the changes were not as dramatic as they had hoped, Paul Berman's Power and the Idealists shows that in Europe, at least, the revolution happened, and the changes there were positive and meaningful.

The book blossomed from a 2001 New Republic essay Berman wrote about the publication of photographs of then-German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in a 1973 street brawl with police. In his youth, Fischer was a member of the Putzgruppe, one of West Germany's left-wing anarchist organizations, and the photographs put his constituents in an awkward position: while Fischer's leftist past was no secret, the pictures of one their esteemed authority figures acting out violently against authority made Germans wonder what happened to that radicalism.

Berman, an NYU professor and historian of the "new left," traces the evolution of Europe's postwar generation from radicals to statesmen and humanitarians. In particular, he considers the legacy of Fischer, Daniel Cohn-Bendit (leader of the 1968 French student uprising), and Bernard Kouchner (founder of Doctors Without Borders and France's current Foreign Minister). While acknowledging that the aging radicals compromised and collaborated in ways their youthful selves might not have approved of, Berman argues that they successfully addressed their '60s interests: human rights, environmental policy, and, most importantly, finding and destroying fascism wherever it lived.

The author maintains that the radicals are still doing their best to put idealistic vision into practice — he holds the '68ers responsible for the intervention in Kosovo and the substantial debate over the war in Iraq, not to mention saving thousands of lives through medical intervention around the world. While complex and proudly biased, Power and the Idealists is a fascinating look at a generation as it matured. The book leaves little doubt that, at least in Europe, the radicals did not sell out. Or, if they did, the world should thank them for it.
- Daniel Luzer

NONFICTION

The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics by Matt Bai


Published:	2007
Pages:	316
Publisher:	Penguin Press
Links: Author blog Author website YouTube video NPR interview

“The Argument offers firsthand accounts of the varied factions within the Democratic Party, while never revealing the writer's personal politics.”

Review
Something is stirring in the Democratic Party, and New York Times Magazine regular Matt Bai set out to get to the bottom of it. He found himself on the trail of another Progressive movement — the contemporary incarnation of that 19th-century groundswell that aimed to cure the ills of society. According to Bai, today's progressive wing is composed of three powerful factions: billionaires (George Soros), bloggers (DailyKos), and grassroots organizations (MoveOn.org). With the goal of returning the party to its founding ideals, they are gaining momentum as anger mounts on the left.

Bai's journalistic credentials grant him a ringside seat, and he documents the beginnings of something that may yet transform America — or possibly already has. For evidence of the new political battleground, Bai trots out the web-centric outpouring of support for Howard Dean in 2004 and the Ned Lamont-vs-Joe Lieberman Connecticut Senate race in 2006. There was a silver lining to those early defeats, Bai contends, as central tenets of the progressive agenda — such as universal health care and energy independence — trickled down to the mainstream and into the talking points of this year's Democratic candidates.

The Argument offers firsthand accounts of the varied factions within the Democratic Party, while never revealing the writer's personal politics. Some of the character sketches of those dominating the movement, such as DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, may be exaggerated, but the frankness of Bai's attempts captures the energy that the movement provokes.

The author presents his ideas clearly, with concise and detailed writing. But what makes The Argument particularly poignant today is the recent wave of Obamamania, which shows signs of the same fervor that swept the country during earlier incarnations of the Progressive wave. The Democratic Party's "argument," it seems, continues, and Bai's book may be an indispensable source for a movement that just may come out on top.
- Hrag Vartanian

ART

My Life in Politics by Tim Davis


Published:	2006
Pages:	109
Publisher:	Aperture
Links: Artist website NY Times review Village Voice review MoCP exhibition

“If these arresting photographs didn't raise themselves above the fracas, they'd serve as an unbearable dirge to America as we know it.”

Review
It takes an articulate cynic to measure the pulse of American politics at the beginning of the 21st century. My Life in Politics, by photographer and erstwhile poet Tim Davis, chronicles the dismal state of the union between 2002 and 2004. Destined to be a classic depiction of this decade, Davis' series captures the modern era's three defining characteristics: a deeply mediated relationship to the political system, a rancorous partisanship, and the inefficacy of individual resistance or protest.

As he outlines in his "1500 Word Essay," Davis photographed places that any of his fellow citizens could visit. The book opens with a cracked reproduction of Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington, and closes with a map of the United States on a Mac desktop, each state coded in red or blue. In between, Davis captures aging political activists, simulcasts of US Senate proceedings, protesting anti-abortionists, and tourists peeking through construction fencing at the White House's neoclassical facade. One particular photograph encapsulates the decade with a chilling clarity: in Nixon Monument, Nixon Birthplace, a rainbow-hued gasoline stain on faded tarmac, Davis wraps together America's bellicose oil lust and environmental chauvinism.

Davis' caustic and often poetically oblique comments annotate the wry photographs. "Sincerity is the new irony. I'm sorry" accompanies a picture of the interior of a Mexican restaurant with an inspiring mural of Dr. King's achievements, above which a banner of text reads, "ONE PEOPLE ONE NATION ONE TACO ONE DESTINY." Throughout, Davis casts a skeptical eye on baby boomers' nostalgia for the '60s, which still inundates all aspects of our culture, from artworks in the 2004 Whitney Museum's Biennial ("no comment" writes Davis) to a bulletin board of retired protest pins.

If these arresting photographs didn't raise themselves above the fracas, they'd serve as an unbearable dirge to America as we know it. As he taps into the vernacular of American photography (think Evans, Winograd, Shore), one of the country's proudest artistic legacies from the 20th century, Davis resurrects a confidence in America's relentless capacity for self-criticism and self-improvement. My Life in Politics mandates broad cynicism toward a broken democracy as the first step to restoring hope.
- H.G. Masters

FEATURE Before Blogging: Classic Campaign Journalism		We know how the story ends. But the best campaign lit blends the thrill of the race with a deft pulling back of the curtain, ushering the candidates and their wiles into the unblinking light of the masses — grand finales be dammed. The treasure of primary sources is that they offer what nothing else can: the zeitgeist of the then that shapes the now. These narratives are our connective political tissue, linking benchmarks we use to create our political mythology. The best writings — from a macho lot — reveal new facets of the machine. Joe McGinniss' The Selling of the President 1968 is the bible of political marketing, laying out the calculating details that helped Nixon win the game, while Terry Southern laid bare the kooks of the '68 Democratic convention. The Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse (a Hunter S. Thompson crony in '72) diagnosed herd journalism for the first time, and Richard Ben Cramer's riveting version of the 1988 campaign in What It Takes: The Way to the White House digs deep into the psychology and motives of presidential material. But two classics of the campaign trail, Superman Comes to the Supermarket, written by Norman Mailer and published by Esquire magazine in 1960, and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson, bring two moments — the nomination of Kennedy and the fog of war — into prescient focus for 2008. In the current political year, the mystique of Senator Barack Obama is often, perhaps carelessly, compared to that of John Kennedy. His youth, physical presence, and inexperience make the parallel plausible; he represents the same open tableau, unsullied by multiple rounds in the political ring. That is, as it was for Kennedy, both his strength and his weakness, and it could be the antidote to the very non-Hollywood ending the American project appears to be taking under President Bush. "Of necessity the myth would emerge once more because America's politics would also now be America's favorite movie, America's first soap opera, America's best seller," Mailer wrote of Kennedy. When we read his account of the Democratic convention in Los Angeles, we witness the tide change and nearly gullible insistence that Kennedy's star power and slick sheen would make the quiescent heaviness of the Eisenhower years disappear. But the welcome for the deus ex machina was not without reserve. "With such a man in office the myth of the nation would again be engaged, and the fact that he was Catholic would shiver a first existential vibration of consciousness into the mind of the White Protestant [...] who would have the pain and creative luxury of feeling himself in some tiny degree part of a minority." Kennedy's otherness was unmistakably powerful in 1960. What he was not — a work-horse like Adlai Stevenson, bullish like LBJ, or dark like Richard Nixon — defined him as much as what he was. And indeed, it's Obama's otherness that appears to have cast a similar magic in a way that Hillary Clinton's otherness has not. It is the same double-punch appeal, we see through Mailer, that Kennedy pioneered so well. Keep reading »

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BOOK NEWS A few notable bits of recent book news.
Ishmael Beah sticks to his story (GalleyCat)
Following accusations of inaccuracies in the Australian press, Ishmael Beah defends the veracity of his memoir, A Long Way Gone.
Stephen King rates the Kindle (Entertainment Weekly)
The bestselling author — who knows a thing or two about turning pages — gives the new gadget a test-drive.
Susan Sontag's son relates the end of her life (NPR)
In his new book, David Rieff, Susan Sontag's son, relates his mother's final days and her uncompromising atheism, even as she neared death.
David Simon on journalism (Esquire)
The creator of HBO's The Wire, David Simon, reflects back on his 13 years as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun.
Martin Amis re-ignites controversy with his essays on Islam (Guardian)
Following a public spat with University of Manchester colleague Terry Eagleton, novelist Martin Amis expounds on the relationship between writing and terrorism in his new book, The Second Plane: September 11: Terror and Boredom.
The uncertain future of Nabokov's last work (Slate)
As Vladimir Nabokov's son and translator Dmitri turns 73, he must decide whether to publish his father's last work, The Original of Laura, which his father expressly ordered him to destroy.
The third most-read poet of all time (New Yorker)
New Yorker critic Joan Acocella examines the critical neglect of Lebanon-born Kahlil Gibran and his best-known work, The Prophet. The 26 prose-poems published in 1923 are the third-best-selling poems of all time, behind Shakespeare's and Lao-Tzu's.
Finalists for National Book Critics Circle (Critical Mass)
At an SF event studded with literati, the National Book Critics Circle announced its finalists, with nods for Joyce Carol Oates in two categories.
Unauthorized Tom Cruise biography sparks media controversy (CNN)
British journalist Andrew Morton's unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise hit bookshelves this month. Allegations about Cruise's status as the second-in-charge in the Church of Scientology prompted denials and litigation from the group.
Books about Bush (Vanity Fair)
Less than year from the end of the Bush presidency, James Wolcott sorts through the mounting stack of books on George W.
Disgraced blogger makes a literary comeback with polemic against the Internet (Salon)
Cultural critic Lee Siegel, caught bashing critics of his own New Republic articles in the reader-response forum, returns with a book blasting Internet culture.
Rise of the cell-phone novel (New York Times)
Novels originally written on and for cell phones captured five out of the top ten spots on Japan's bestseller lists last year.
Chip Kidd spills the beans (Dwell)
The legendary jacket designer discusses the delicate art of allowing you to judge a book by its cover (or at least be intrigued by it) in a video interview.
China's book boom (Guardian)
The publishing industry eyes the Chinese market, as China decouples its 570 state-owned publishing houses from government overview.
Top-shelf bookstores (The Guardian)
A top-ten list of the world's most eye-poppingly beautiful book shops (with photos), including ones in converted theatres, bank buildings, and even a church.
Cutting the pages (BoingBoing)
Artist Olafur Eliasson laser cut a 1:85 scale model of his house into a blank book.
Auster aloud (KQED)
Paul Auster reads from his latest, Travels in the Scriptorium.


CREDITS Managing Editor Toby Warner Deputy Editor H.G. Masters Contributing Editors Mark Mangan Chris Parris-Lamb Paul Laster Anna Balkrishna Chris Gage Doug Levy Editors-at-Large Larry Weissman Sean McDonald Contributors Mik Awake Daniel Luzer McKay McFadden Diana Metzger Catherine New Hrag Vartanian Production & Design Anjuli Ayer Jessica Bauer-Greene Morgan Croney Sascha Lewis Andrew Steinmetz Daphne Yang Cover Art Tim Davis Bush Cutout (detail), 2002-2004 From the book My Life in Politics Published by Aperture Foundation All Rights Reserved		ABOUT US Boldtype is a monthly, email-based review of books published by Flavorpill Productions. Our mission is to cover five to seven books each month that are worth reading. No money is accepted from any publishers, writers, reviewers, or marketing or PR companies. In addition to this monthly review of books, Flavorpill publishes a series of online magazines, covering ART, NEWS, MUSIC, and cultural events in six cities — NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO, CHICAGO, MIAMI, and LONDON. Coming soon: STYLE/DESIGN and FILM. Subscribe now. MEDIA PARTNERSHIPS Every month, Boldtype presents one exclusive media partner. Click for more information about advertising opportunities on Boldtype and across all Flavorpill publications. FEEDBACK We welcome any and all feedback — comments, criticism, and even effusive praise. To reach the staff at Boldtype, please email us at editor. SUBMISSIONS If you have a book that you would like us to consider for review, please send an email to books or mail a copy here: Boldtype c/o Flavorpill Productions 594 Broadway, Suite 1212 New York, NY 10012

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