A Political Odyssey
by Mike Gravel
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mike GravelForeword: Daniel Ellsberg
Contributor: Joe Lauria
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05
ISBN: 1583228268
Number of pages: 287
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781583228265
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of A Political Odyssey
Book Review: "Mike by Name, Mic by Nature"
Summary: 4 Stars
ing as ludicrously extreme as the Baader Meinhof Phenomenon but that, of course, is another story entirely.
This is, nonetheless, an enormous digression and far from the point so coming finally to this book I should observe immediately that this is a tome that truly boasts it all from world class whistle blowing to incredibly overblown egos to senatorial blowhards to Olympic-calibre blowers of their own trumpet.
Gravel may not always be the most likeable or, god knows, modest of characters but, by golly, he is as honest and brutal in his objections as a cornered skunk- and such characters as this invariably make for an interesting read.
His battles up against The Man often became his very own minor epics not least because he quite implausibly chose to take on the likes of Nixon and Carter while they sat in their Oval Offices and Teddy Kennedy at the very height of his not inconsiderable powers.
Yet Gravel's often pugilistic politics in and beyond DC's corridors of power ultimately proved decisive when he showed himself sufficiently audacious and courageous to read the Pentagon Papers into the public record and therefore affect the very course of the Vietnam War.
The enormity of Gravel's contempt for the military-industrial combine defined his political heyday of decades past but, judging by this book's intense scrutiny of the U.S.-prompted wars that have been waged since, he remains as incredulous and apoplectic on the subject now as then.
That he apparently managed to hit a giant pause button in his personal battle against said M/I combine during his political wilderness years might be fair criticism were it not for his demonstrably detailed understanding of just how incessant the warmongers have continue to be.
Unfortunately his understanding of the minutiae of the politics of arms has the effect of rendering enormous passages at the center of the book as stoutly and almost impenetrably dense as seven jumbo copies of the old testament written in hieroglyphics and wrapped in rhinoceros skin. Then dipped in treacle.
It should nonetheless be stated that despite all this stupefying density the deft writing and lightness of touch shown by the book's author, Joe Lauria, keeps those loooooongest passages interesting and, dare I say, even compelling for us readers unburdened by any natural compulsion to understand every wretched cough and fart in US political history.
To be fair it's clear this stuff is of the utmost importance to both Lauria and Gravel and as fun as it appears to have been for Lauria to write these chapters what is equally clear is that Gravel had one helluva time living through and being part of them.
Partying with Henry and Jane Fonda, battling presidents, boozing with Sinatra, working with Ralph Nader, contesting the democratic nomination in what will quite possibly become THE most important presidential election in American history- it is all very heady stuff indeed. The type of thing people write great books about and in this instance they have.
In all Lauria and Gravel's tome stands as a testament to the erstwhile senator's lifelong quest to be a great American. The evidence of this book proves that to a very significant extent he probably is.
In the scheme of things Gravel may be little more than a technicolored footnote in American history but that in itself is a one-in-a hundred million achievement.
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