OurColony.net

Joe Eszterhas has created a genre

Customer Rating:
This book is as unique and entertaining as an 8 course meal served by a team of strippers in a library.

I like Bill Clinton MORE after reading this book and suspect that he is privately a Joe Eszterhas fan. And why not? Joe Eszterhas has more closet fans than any modern American writer.

No closet for me, thanks. Joe rules.

And a P.S. to Bill... America didn't hold the knobber against you. It's just that after JFK and Marilyn, we have pretty high standards. No hoggin' in the oval office, bro. If it had been Charlize Theron we would all have high fived you. Even Hillary would have understood.

:)

Irresistably preposterous-- But know what you are in for

Customer Rating:
Eszterhas the book writer is more intriguing and ideosyncratic than Eszterhas the screen writer. Be prepared for a 60's counter culture apologia pro vita sua with interesting detours (such as a tribute to Barry Goldwater).

The book is ultimately a tour of America the Horny across the life span of baby boomers. "Life span" is the proper term, since there is raunch enough for a lifetime. The organizing principle is that Bill Clinton is the avatar for the sexual acting out of the rock and roll lifestyle. Clinton is not particularly revered here, although Hilary is portrayed as so cold (and maybe gay) that Bill had little choice.

There is a lot of malicious gossip here, but some is true. The challenge is distinguishing between gossip that is malicious and that which is false and malicious.

For all the astoundingly diverse sexual activity described, there is a clinical detachment. Eszterhas uses few words (save when quoting others) that the New York Times would not print.

Eszterhas narrates lots of the book and is not an especially skilled reader-- although the ring of authenticity he gives keeps it from being annoying. Ed Asner is a fine reader.

Be prepared for Eszterhas's substantial ego.

?????

Customer Rating:
I tend to vote Republican but refuse to align myself with the Right Wing or Moral Majority. I'm the guy in the middle that the candidates are really after. I say that as any review on this book should be tempered by the politics of the reader. JE is an avowed Democrat with socialist leanings. Read his most recent book "American Animal" to verify this. So it was surprising as I read the first third of this book that after an initial bow to Clinton as the Rock & Roll Prez, one of "us", he then seems to chastise him for his fatal flaws. This part of the book is interesting, engaging, but also somewhat repetitive. I still couldn't wait to read it my allotted hour a night.

But there is only so much you can talk about this subject and JE rambles on and on until he finally manages to really offend me. How? Well, I just finished his most recent book, "American Animal" an autobiography which I immensely enjoyed. Full of Hollywood stories. But reading this, I see that JE has included many of the stories I enjoyed from his autobiography in this political commentary/fantasy. So is he a writer with a message or is he just repeating his few stories to make a buck?

I don't know what to make of this book, thus my title. Did I enjoy some parts? Yes. Are there some interesting stories? Yes. But there is a lot of waste. It's like wandering thru a jungle with a machete looking for your trail. When you find it, it's worth the work. So maybe the only item I can add of interest came from reading this with some years of aging. JE takes on Arianna Huffington who he spends quite a bit of time describing her history to show what a bad person she is and how she climbed to the top while stepping on other people's faces. But would JE have included these chapters in this form if he had known that within a few years she would shift sides and now disavow her right wing leanings? I think not.

This is not a great book. But if you enjoy reading, maybe you will enjoy it.

Decent and Deplorable- in prose from the spheres.

Customer Rating:
This is the truth! I never read any other of these exposes and during the majority of the media coverage of the episode that led to Clinton's impeachment- I switched to the animal planet. After reading some reviews on Amazon, I bought this book and I'm glad I did. "The Comeback Kid" takes plenty of flack from the author, but Eszterhas spares none. I like the names: The Big Kielbasa- Wilt Chamberlain, "The Bag Lady of Sleaze"- Lucienne Goldberg, the lady who got the story into the media,"Hilla the Hun," "The Night Creature"- Nixon- "The Manchurian Candidate"- McCain- "The Rat Woman,"- Linda Tripp, it goes on to the current president named, "The Crown Prince." The coarsest individual does have the funniest lines, i.e. LBJ- too much to repeat here. The few who seem to get off lightly, like Monica, and believe it or not- Barry Goldwater and Newsweek Magazine who had the story and never printed it.
Perhaps the most effective and distressing part of the book is when Eszterhas does a mini retrospective of all the things we didn't want to know,but did over the years, here are a few: Sen. Harkin blowing his nose on CNN without a handkerchief, Bush Sr. throwing up in China, Buchanon saying "Congress is an Israeli occupied territory," Bob Dylan and Elizabeth T., LBJ turning to the side and taking a whizz at an outdoor press conference, Nixon and Kissinger kneeling together and praying, Spiro Agnew, "If you've seen one city slum you've seen them all," Michael Jackson and his chimp, David Bowie and Mick Jagger. (?)

Eszterhas obviously knows more and remembers more than is probably good for him, but his prose is stunning as is the manner by which he weaves the book together- even with some fiction. The author was the screenwriter for Fatal Attraction and had a relationship with Sharon Stone- who also takes some upper cuts and was rumored to have been intimate with Clinton as well. I definitely recommend reading this- for the humor and frankly, The gossip is completely consuming.

MUCH more than smutty tell-all

Customer Rating:
What a memorable and highly rewarding read. This book is much more than the sum of it's salacious and often repugnant contents; it's also a lecture on morality and a history lesson as well. I don't see how someone who reads this book can be derisive regarding the interlacing of fiction or the sheer amount of sordid detail. Given Eszerhas' talent for script writing and keen interest for the underbelly of the American society, how his book is put together should be no surprise. It's certainly not a novel or a bucket of heresay poo.
I am one who is generally both revolted and amused by the tabloids, and shows like Entertainment Television. But I could not put this book down. The book is informative and revealing, and I found myself lauging out loud and cringing, often while reading the same paragraph. I particularly enjoyed the moments where Eszterhas reflects on his own life; it's probably the most engaging aspect of the book. Expecting to find a smutty and over the top tell-all, I found something rich in intelligent, values-based writing.