Review by New York Times Review
NOTES ON A FOREIGN COUNTRY: An American Abroad in a Post-American World, by Suzy Hansen. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $15.) Over her years living in Istanbul, Hansen, a journalist, became keenly aware of America's enduring influence in the Middle East - and, as she put it, Americans' "active denial of their empire even as they laid its foundations." This pointed memoir reconciles her personal idea of the United States with its political realities. THE SEVENTH FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE, by Laurent Binet. Translated by Sam Taylor. (Picador, $16.) This high-minded detective novel is a semiotic romp. Binet treats the death of the critic Roland Barthes as a possible murder with political undertones. Heaps of real-life figures crop up along the way, including Julia Kristeva, François Mitterrand and Michel Foucault. The sendups of academia are frequent and gleeful. THANKS, OBAMA: My Hopey, Changey White House Years, by David Litt. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $16.99.) Litt joined the Obama campaign as a volunteer, eventually rising to become a senior speechwriter for the president. This optimistic account centers on Litt's coming-of-age at the White House (in a job where "every audience is the entire United States"), and assesses the president's legacy along with the political processes that shaped it. BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD, by Attica Locke. (Mulholland/Little, Brown, $15.99.) In East Texas a ranger goes searching for the killer of a black man and white woman, whose bodies were fished out of a bayou. As he rushes to solve the crime, secrets, betrayals and racial tensions across generations threaten to erupt. Our columnist Marilyn Stasio listed the book as one of the best crime novels of 2017, and wrote, "Locke writes in a blues-infused idiom that lends a strain of melancholy and a sense of loss to her lyrical style." BUNK: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News, by Kevin Young. (Graywolf, $18.) This timely history delves into America's enduring fascination with the apocryphal, touching on everything from P.T. Barnum to fabricated memoirs. Our reviewer, Jonathan Lethem, called the book "a panorama, a rumination and a polemic at once," which "delivers riches in return." THE UNDERGROUND RIVER, by Martha Conway. (Touchstone, $16.) In the 1800s, a young seamstress is abandoned by her sister, and is taken in by a traveling theater company based on a flatboat. Soon, she becomes involved in the dangerous work of ferrying children born into slavery across the Ohio River. This novel follows along as she evades slave catchers and other perils, and offers a host of quirky characters.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [September 16, 2018]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this entertaining memoir, Litt recounts becoming, in 2011, one of eight speechwriters for President Obama. Two years later, he held the title "special assistant to the president" and was Obama's go-to guy for funny lines, with an ever-larger role in the president's remarks for the annual Correspondents' Dinner. His career culminated in 2015 with the famous Correspondents' Dinner featuring "Obama's Anger Translator," Keegan-Michael Key's sketch-comedy character. Litt's tale shares a starry-eyed sensibility and gratification in personal good fortune-in his case, landing a dream job soon after graduating from Yale-with other accounts published by former Obama staffers. However, he manages to come off as not (too) privileged or self-important, candidly recollecting some of his biggest gaffes as a White House speechwriter (for instance, gravely offending the government and people of Kenya with a single, thoughtlessly written line.) He also does an excellent job describing the genesis and performance of several of Obama's most powerful speeches, including one made following the Charleston church shootings in 2015: "Then, without warning, he paused, looked down, and shook his head.... Then, softly, the most powerful person on earth began to sing." Veering between tragedy and comedy, between self-doubt and hubris, Litt vividly recreates a period during which he saw his words sometimes become the words of a nation. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Litt (head writer/producer, Funny or Die, Washington, DC office) served from 2011 to 2016 as special assistant and senior speechwriter to President Barack Obama, a job that included the serious business of writing jokes for the president. "Lips," as he was nicknamed by Obama, shares that one funny line results from 25 bad ones. Inspired by Obama's call for national unity and progressivism, Litt became an "Obamabot" volunteer during the 2008 campaign. Writing jokes and presidential remarks is high-pressure work, and as Litt vividly shows, a wrong word or phrase could lead to exile from the political cauldron. This book includes its share of humor, notably how Litt was caught in his underwear aboard Air Force One, but it's best for its coming-of-age themes that show the twentysomething author maturing against a backdrop of debate over the Affordable Care Act, the rise of ISIS, the divisiveness of race, and the defeat of the Democrats in the 2014 midterm elections. Litt's personal journey takes him from a college slacker to a highly regarded wordsmith who skillfully conveyed the president's goals and policies. VERDICT This perceptive and sharp-witted memoir will be enjoyed by political junkies and those interested in presidential speechwriting. See Mark Katz's Clinton & Me for another take on presidential joke writing. [See Prepub Alert, 3/8/17.]-Karl Helicher, formerly with -Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
President Barack Obama's speechwriter offers his take on an extraordinary tenure inside the White House.There's an interesting subcategory of memoirs emerging from the Obama years. Unlike the heavy hitters from the Cabinet, we're hearing from the young professionals who propelled the senator to power and bore witness to his legacy. They also happen to be some of the funniest workplace comedies on the shelves. In a memoir following closely on the heels of former Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco's book, Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? (2017), Litt, one of the youngest speechwriters in the history of the White House, delivers a fast, funny ride through the halls of power. Haunted by the specter of Sarah Palin ("So, how's that whole hopey, changey thing workin' out for ya?"), the author offers a stark contrast in leadership between then and now. Working first for senior adviser Valerie Jarrett before becoming senior presidential speechwriter, Litt admits his impressions were colored by The West Wing: "Like every Democrat under the age of thirty-five, I was raised, in part, by Aaron Sorkin." He reveals what it's like to write four White House Correspondents' Association dinner speeches for the president, and he chronicles some strange encounters with the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Weinstein, and the comedy duo Key Peele. But for every White House men's room anecdote or gee-whiz moment ("Air Force One is exactly as cool as you would expect"), Litt offers piercing assessments of the nature of our politics. "Gridlock is an accident, an inconvenience," he writes. "What happened on Capitol Hill was a strategy, and its architect was Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell." His final thoughts, written as the next administration begins its reign, are telling: "But here, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is the single most valuable lesson I learned in public service: There are no grown-ups, at least not in the way I imagined as a kid." President Obama's running question to Litt was, "so, are we funny?" Yes, they areand insightful, too. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
