Confessions of a Guilty Freelancer, livre ebook

Lively essays with a personal twist

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William O'Rourke's singular view of American life over the past 40 years shines forth in these short essays on subjects personal, political, and literary, which reveal a man of keen intellect and wide-ranging interests. They embrace everything from the state of the nation after 9/11 to the author's encounter with rap, from the masterminds of political makeovers to the rich variety of contemporary American writing. His reviews illuminate both the books themselves and the times in which we live, and his personal reflections engage even the most fearful events with a special humor and gentle pathos. Readers will find this richly rewarding volume difficult to put down.

CONTENTS
Preface
I: The Personal
Here's Mine
Richard Elman
Grace Paley
My rap problems—and yours?
Arming Yourself for the Outdoors
Two Midwest Meditations:
I. Reunion and Revolution
II. Ties
Dear Dad
Confessions of a Freelancer
II: The Personal and the Political
Extreme Makeover: TV Home Improvement from Carter to Bush II
Five Male Chroniclers of Bill Clinton and His World: Christopher Hitchens, Michael Isikoff, Andrew Morton, George Stephanopoulos, Bob Woodward
9/11
Blue & Red America After September 11th
Virginia Tech
Imus
Susan Braudy: Family Circle
Joe Conason: Big Lies
Daniel Ellsberg: Secrets
John Frohnmayer: Leaving Town Alive
Dick Morris: Off With Their Heads
Kevin Phillips: American Dynasty (1)
Kevin Phillips: American Theology (2)
Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose: Bushwacked
Robert B. Reich: Reason
David McCullough: John Adams
Edmund Morris: Theodore Rex
Steve Neal: Happy Days Are Here Again
Amanda Smith: Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy
John A. Farrell: Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century
III: The Personal and the Political and the Literary
Raymond Carver: Hemingway Without Money
Michael Ryan: Secret Life
Philip Graham: How to Read an Unwritten Language
Peter Dexter: The Paperboy
John Updike: The Afterlife and Other Stories
John McGahern and Colm Toibin
Jim Crace: Signals of Distress
Robert Olen Butler: They Whisper
Richard Ford: Independence Day
Harvey Jacobs: American Goliath
Thomas Keneally: American Scoundrel
John L'Heureux: The Miracle
Toby Olson and Ellen Akins
Pinckney Benedict: Dogs of God
Rick Bass: Platte River
Michael Stephens: The Brooklyn Book of the Dead
Graham Swift: Last Orders
Bob Shacochis: Swimming in the Volcano
Willie Morris: New York Days
Forward to the Past
Andrew Levy: The Culture and Commerce of the American Short Story
Acknowledgements
Index