Books
Whilst still in the running for trophies on the football pitch, Roy Keane has lost in his bid to win literary garlands for his bestselling and highly controversial autobiography. The prize at the British Book Awards for 'Best Book of the Year' went instead to the equally confrontational Michael Moore for his book Stupid White Men, an award voted for by the British public. Not bad for a book that was withdrawn from sale in the United States for lampooning George Bush post September 11, and far be it for me to suggest that may be a reason for its continued success.
Stupid White Men by Michael Moore, who is also known for his guerrilla film-making (Bowling For Columbine, Roger and Me) has to be one of the most screamingly funny, incisive looks at the state of America since the so-called "grownups" (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and company) took over.
Yet the book is more than satire of a high order. It is a critical appraisal of the current state of the nation, its people, its leaders, and its place as a leader among the nations of the world. For all his brilliant humour, his look at a contemporary society heading into God-only-knows-what future of genetic engineering, perplexing cyberspace, increasing corporate control over our lives and a plutocratic government becoming less and less in touch with the people it governs is chilling. In light of the international media circus in Iraq, and with George Dubbya kissing babies on our own doorstep, Moore's observations appear almost prophetic.
Hemingway once defined a writer as someone with a "built-in crap detector." Well, if that is the definition, then Michael Moore has patented an original version of that invaluable machine. With his restless, incisive wit and devastating cynicism, Moore at his best reminds me somewhat of a Mark Twain or even a Jonathan Swift. However, as a satirist, Moore is probably neither as cynical as the incomparable Twain nor as imaginative as the ineffable Swift. Rather, he is in a class by himself- a brilliant wit and caricaturist with the precise timing of Vaudeville slapstick in his send-up of contemporary society and politics. No one is left out in his brazen attack on the mores and absurdities of American culture's sometimes chilling elements.
24th Apr 2003