Our Gang (original 1971; edition 1972)

פרודיה גסה על ניקסון וחבורתו​ ( )

Pretty funny, the first couple of sketches are really good. It loses a bit of momentum as it stitches together a plot, but the prompt crushing of a Boy Scout-led protest and the successful invasion of Denmark by the US turn it around. A long way from Roth’s best, but a good, quick 200-page blast of fun. Written in 1971, before Watergate, so Roth could say he told you so. ( )

This book wages an unflinching satirical assault on the crimes and misdemeanors of the first Nixon administration (imagine Roth writing this after Watergate!) in the form of tongue-in-cheek press conferences, newscasts, and presidential policy sessions. Whip-like wit and absurdist farce carry the story forward as President Trick E. Dixon invades Denmark in order to forcibly extradite baseball player Curt Flood, hoping to frame him for inciting ten thousand boy scouts to demonstrate against Dixon's proposed enfranchisement of the unborn.

As closely as the dystopian dialogue matches that of Nixon and his advisers, handlers, and public relations personnel, with its gall and swagger it more closely still resembles the pandering and pablum of the current Bush administration. ( )

A fine satire of Richard Nixon (Trick E. Dixon) and his gang at a time when he sorely needed satirizing. The book is wickedly funny, and knowing now what we know about Tricky Dick, it seems more apt than it did at the time. ( )