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ZOMBIFICATION: Never at a loss for a trenchant comment, Andrei Codrescu has been chronicling the absurdities of American culture for over 10 years. This collection of essays includes lively riffe on whales, dreams, gypsies, and weather, as well as larger subjects such as the collapse of communism and radical change in American politics. |
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Booklist, July 19, 1994: Thanks to his wonderful accent (which to insensitive ears, at least, sounds irresistibly like a Bela Lugosi impression, only funny), what Romanian-born, neo-Beat poet Codrescu does best is spiel on the radio. This fat volume collects four years' worth of his little cultural commentaries and constitutes a treasure trove of recreational reading for fans of his venue, National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Here he is on the Persian Gulf War: Take President Bush's display of paternal love: starting a war to get his son out of the news. On Ron and Nancy: Not only do the Reagans run the country by astrological signs, they probably also...try to levitate off their horses. On zombification: The other day in Colorado, 20,000 people showed up at a bake sale for Rush Limbaugh. Hmmmm. Guess a health warning for Republicans ought to be put on the book: GOP-ers lacking a sense of humor just might explode. - ©1994, American Library Association. All Rights Reserved. From Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 1994: There's plenty of Codrescu's trademark wry wit on display in this collection of pieces written for and broadcast on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" from 1989 to 1993, but his serious side is more overtly in evidence than it was in Road Scholar (1993). The author chronicles his observations of Eastern Europe's march "from the suicide of communism to the rebirth of fascism," and he defines "zombification" as the world's troubling indifference to suffering, whether in Sarajevo or Washington, D.C. A grab bag of emotions, then, but those who prefer Codrescu's lighter side will find everything from nymphettes in San Francisco to art food in Seattle. (Author tour) - ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All Rights Reserved. |
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