Our Gang

This marvelous book chronicles the abuse of language. Readers familiar with Orwell's "Politics and the English Language," or with the liberal critique of Richard Nixon ("I don't think we can clearly nail Nixon as a liar," a Democrat congressional staffer once remarked, " although he undoubtedly is one in this instance, as in all others.") will laugh long and loud as "Tricky Dixon" employs every imaginable form of sly, slippery innuendo... against Boy Scouts, Denmark, and likely 1972 opponent"Teddy Charisma."

Nor is Roth's acid pen limited to savaging the Dixon administration. Television "journalists" ("Erect Severhead" is my favorite) are depicted as equally culpable for the debasement of communication and thus necessarily of show more democracy.

As another reviewer here put it, "it is easy to forget how damn funny Phillip Roth can be when he wants." And also how satire can be the most potent poltical weapon of all. show less

Philip Roth is one of the great writers of his time. He has gained a mass audience while still retaining his credibility as a "serious" author, worthy of critical consideration. That's pretty hard to do.

This book, the first of Roth's that I read, showed me his reputation was well earned. The satire was over-the-top, but Roth knew just when to pull back a little to avoid it from diving into Marx Brothers territory. The characterizations of Nixon and his administration are dead on. I loved how the story gradually became more and more absurd until reaching a crescendo at the end.

What impressed me even more is that Roth wrote this book before Nixon's ouster. Reading it with that knowledge, one has to feel kind of spooked that so many things show more in this book actually turned out to be true.

With all that, this book still manages to be a light and funny read. I would recommend it to all. show less

Meh- I was really looking forward to this, but it feels a bit throw away New Journalism. This isn't so much political satire as satire on one particular politician and the stupidities of modern media. As such, it's a great idea. And Roth is uncannily good at imitating the vocabulary of Nixon and the aforementioned stupid modern media. The trick is that he's almost too good at it: Portnoy's Complaint, it turns out, is pleasurable because the rants are in Roth's voice. When you get Roth's ability to never shut up and add it to stupid people, it's not nearly as entertaining. Also, post Clinton & Bush II & Obama, Nixon looks less like an aberration and more like a prophet: yes, this is how politics will be from now on. The outrage here is show more directed towards a man, not towards an entire population of almost identical men and the twits they play to. 'Our Gang's' apparent belief that the general population will see through political cant feels more than a little quaint.

That said, it's short, well written and has a bunch of good one-liners. show less

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 show more the current Bush administration. show less

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.

Our Gang is purely satire of the Nixon presidency. It was a really quick read, but the ridiculousness of everything almost got to be too much (although that seems to be the state of all things political nowadays). I would have liked to have known more of the background of that era of American history before I read the book, but I was still able to get the gist of what Roth was saying. It makes me wonder how he would re-write the book for some of our more recent presidents.

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.