This just in from Katherine Russell Rich, a terrific writer and author of the forthcoming Dreaming in Hindi
The election sent readers running to the bookstore to buy Barack Obama's memoirs, the AP reported yesterday--it was the end of a great run for the president-elect's two books.
In a post-James Frey world, it's hard to imagine voting for a presidential candidate based on a memoir. Nevertheless, David Henry Sterry endorsed Obama at the Huffington Post, using the President-elect's memoir as his guide. His highly literary conclusion:
"I have no clue how the economic plans of either candidate will dig us out of this gaping gasping chasm. But memoir wise, Obama feels the real deal, while McCain feels a fake ... Obama, with his thoughtful, elegant prose, comes across like a man who'd rather talk than fight. A man true to his memoir.
Monday, November 10, 2008
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4 comments:
Sounds like good news for memoirists...
Sterry should read the RS "Maverick" article on McCain to know how fake his memoir is.
What else could we go on? The world will be different next week, much less in January, right?
A gut call, really.
The real question: How did a mediocrity like Obama get into Harvard Law School?
Expect some serious reporting on that issue.
Peter, why do you say that O's books are well written?
On what basis do you say that Barack Obama is a mediocrity, except perhaps distaste for his policies or racism? He makes most of his predecessors look like mental defectives or hacks. And his writing is literate, intelligent, and introspective-- maybe not as good as Grant's but way better than Six Crises or Profiles in COurage.
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