The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 18, 1978, Page Page 12, Image 12
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By Lehman Stiles
Pull i
. ? ? ? ? ? oy wiuiam Safira;
Batlentlne; $2 50
It may sound cynical, but Full
Disclosure, by William Safire, is
just the sort of thing one would
expect from a former Nixon
speechwriter. And unfortunately,
Safire knows about as much about
writing as Nixon knew about being
president, in one fell swoop, he
manages to make sex,
assassination attempts and toplevel
power struggles dull and
lifeless.
SafireV previous book was
Before the Fall, yet another
Nixonian post-mortem "Written
Vpnm fVin Tnci/lnl " nn fkn
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proudly claimed. Obviously lost in
a maze of moral dilemmas and
golden opportunities, Safire seems
to think that his experience with
the trashy derring-do of his former
bosses gives him an instant
irrefutable gift for literary
(iruwesa.
Often losing itself in sadomasochistic
- Dadaesque
Guide tc
15y jim Baum
Sneakers by Samuel Amerlcanus Walker;
Workman Publishing; $3.95
Did you know that sneakers are
110 years old? Well, you would
have known that if you had read
Sneakers.
Samuel Amerirus WnlL-or
published a picture book,
Sneakers, that is very informative.
The value of this information,
however, is subject for debate.
Some pertinent information can
be found. For example, Walker
explains the process that Charles
r* i ? ' 1
^jroouyear ana iNamamei Hayword
developed, called vulcanization.
Vulcanization marked the
beginning of the sneaker's history.
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, a
trough
mythology, his story is a study in ,
dirty politics that, after 625 pages |
of hashing around, remains j
nothing more or less than dirty
politics.
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of a U.S. President who loses his
sight during an assassination attempt
and the insidious headknocking
for power that follows.
President Sven Ericson comes
off as a curious mix between
worldly incisiveness and goggling
naive innocence. Even on this
weak foundation, Ericson is the
novel's best-developed character.
A host of incidental glory grabbers
ana stereotypes une sexy young
Presidential bedmate, the triedand-true
old-timer adviser, the
ambitious up-and-coming power
seeker) never get past mere words
on the page.
BUT SOME of the novel's major
faults lie in the use of the very
words themselves. Phrases like "It
was a lie, but it was in the parking
lot of the batt park of truth" belie a
sort of arbitrary style lifted
> informal f
THE MOST interesting portion of
Walker's book, Sneakers, is his
detailed description, both
graphically and technically, the
way in which sneaxers are massproduced.
Illustrations show the
different phases of the production
line.
Perhaps the most important part
of the book is the explanation of
what these shoes can and cannot do
to your feet. Walker instructs in
different sole designs and tells how
you can learn how to safeguard
your achilles tendons, arches and
other parts of the foot.
Walker also gives out other interesting
information, such as
telling the reader that the average
person walks more than 65,000
miles in his or her lifetime, which
is equivalent to 10 round trips from
California to New York.
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seedy{
straight out of a hundred "How To
Write Fiction" books.
Buffie Masterson, the official
photographer who conducts a
strangely meaningless affair with
Ericson, cutely calls him "Potus,?
a disgusting acronym of his full
official title. This is prose inspired
by absolutely nothing, and that is
the exact response it invokes in the
reader: 625 pages of emptiness.
THAT EMPTINESS is possibly
the biggest flaw: the fact that
Safire apparently wrote the book
for the sole reason of clearing a
tidy royalty. Of course, that has
been done before; in fact, it is
almost the raison d'etre for the
modern book trade.
But this particular story has
been told too many times before.
Safire should know that by now the
American public is far too familiar
with the stumbling illegitimacy of
the men who think they run this
country, with the seeming
pathological devotion of every
1 A. n If * ??
gooa posi-r reucuan 10 sex as DOdliy
function (or, as Tom Wolfe calls it,
the Boiler Room Theory), with the
Dodiatry
The author divulges other
curious facts about sneakers: who
wears them, who makes them, who
buys them and what they wear
? r?
uieiu iur.
Pictures of Jimmy Carter, Chris
Evert, Andy Warhol, and Woody
Allen, all decked out in their
favorite sneakers, are included.
Sneakers is a great piece of
literature if you are either
illiterate, or want to find out things
like where the arch of your foot is.
I
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politics f
fact that there's a little good in the
worst of us, etc.
SAF1RE DOES seem to come to |
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Ericson is finally leaving the White j
House for good, his sight returning |
and everyone living happily ever j
after, he says, "Life is not the pure \
amalgam of thought and action I J
used to think it was," about as j
vague a tidbit of chic philosophy \
one is likely to find.
One cannot help but pity Ericson j
if that is all he has learned from
being a blind President. But it is at
least more than the reader learns
from the events of the novel. The
reader learns that nower onrmnts
sex is fun, and life is hard ?
concepts which cannot come as a
tremendous surprise to the
average American.
Perhaps the pure nothingness of
Full Disclosure signals the end of
the "Drunk on Power" genre of
popular novels. Perhaps when the
true nature of humanity is
examined in a political context,
novelists will write stories about
average middle-class taxoavers
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Puns to g<
By Barr
PUNIshment by Har
Punster's Press; t2:
PUNishment is the kind of book tl
like puns. Indeed, the subtitle of th
How to Lose Friends and Agonize F
an enormous collection of puns v
Chicago lawyer and writer. A few
The most vulnerable animal in th
you touch it. it will croak.
m nines my wne can De a consti
up with her incessant grumbling an
The craziness goes on. The book
- largest part is a collection of puns
from puns about foreign countries
second section is a humorous "p
structions on timing and procedui
So place your bets and take youi
k love the book. If not, don't even botJ
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who have learned too much from
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uic uigiici guvci iiiuciii txiiciuns,
and the government will be seen as
merely the least efficient form of
the faults that permeate the
American fabric.
But all Full Disclosure does is
point a finger and say, "You
naughty boys!" And maybe that is
part of the problem.
?t sick by
v J. Glenn
vey C. Gordon; The
95
iat can make you sick if you don't
ie book is "The Art of Punning or
'eople." The 91-page paperbook is
written by Harvey C. Gordon, a
r examples:
e world has to be a frog because if
int complainer. One day I get fed
id sent her home to mutter,
is divided into two sections. The
divided into 22 sections, ranging
to puns about fish and fowl. Hie
mister's guide," which gives inre.
r pick. If you are into puns you'll
ier picking it up. .
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