Seize Your Copy Deadline Poet: Or, My Life As A Doggerelist Written And Illustrated By Calvin Trillin Released As EText

have always liked Calvin Trillin, He is funny, irreverent, and a keen observer of the political scene, I enjoy his dry wit and often selfdeprecating humor,

Having said all that, this book was a bit of a letdown, This is not the fault of the author, I think political humor does not age well, as so much of the meaning and satire/sarcasm/irony is bound up in current events.
When they are current, the barbs are funny, After the fact, not so much, It helped that I lived through the period he was describing, and could relate to the key personalities and events he was lampooning.
Even then, it felt like the literary equivalent of listening to "America's Top" radio show from thirty years ago mildly interesting and more than a little dated.


The best parts of the book for me dealt with Mr, Trillin's comments about the press, being a syndicated columnist and political pundit, and the foibles and failing of his peers in the Fourth Estate.
His thumbnail sketch of the presidents and their key cabinet members were amusing if somewhat skewed to the left of center, and I found his unwillingness to savage first Lady Barbara Bush she was just too darned nice endearing.


If you are a familiar with American politics and world events in the last quarter of theth Century, you will probably find this witty and amusing.
Without that context, a modern reader will be left somewhat flat, I would enjoy a chronicle of more recent events by the same author,

Next up: Dogfight: ThePresidential Campaign in Verse, I can't wait! Not my cup of tea, I read aboutpages, but it failed to engage me, This is one of those books that I found on a "librarians' choice" shelf and I love Trillin, so I checked it out.
In the earlys, Trillin wrote doggerel each week for The Nation, basing his verse on current events, The book is basically a tour through the headlines ofand he includes many of his poems, If you like Trillin's work and bad puns, you should read this book, Otherwise, I recommend his essays from The New Yorker or his trilogy about American food, He is a terrific writer and this is not his very best, Laugh. Out. Loud. October, Betsy G, NonFiction I adore Calvin Trillin, and it was an interesting experience reliving past decades through his eyes and verse.
His doggerel gave me lots of good laughs, the master humorist chronicles bush i to clinton years in doggerel verse, hilarious. Could there be anyone else who was inspired to write poetry by the presence of John Sununu" Maybe so, but only Calvin Trillin came up with a piece of verse called "If You Knew What Sununu.
" Ever since it appeared in print, in, he has been a weekly gadfly in verse for "The Nation," delighting readers with his rhyming observations on the news of the day.
As his deadline approached every week, his inspiration came from, among many others, George Bush "You did your best in your own way, / The way of Greenwich Country Day" and H.
Norman Schwarzkopf and Saddam Hussein and Jerry Brown and Clarence Thomas and Ross Perot and Princess Diana and Zoe Baird "She'd done this deed to get au paired" and Robert Dole and someone called Wanderin' Willie Clinton, who sings the "I got the movin' to the middle 'cause it's slip'ry on the edges blues.
" Here, in prose as sparkling as the verse that accompanies it, Trillin describes his evolution from a

"specialoccasions poet" into a deadline poet, and comments on the events that inspired his weekly verse.
The result is an irresistible entertainment that also turns out to be an antic history of three years of American life that were particularly rich in material for someone who describes his job this way: "The news presents a motley little band / That I observe, tomato in my hand.
Calvin Bud Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, and novelist, He is best known for his humorous writings about food and eating, but he has also written much serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction.
Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and became a member of Scroll and Key before graduating inhe later served as a trustee of the university.
After a stint in the U, S. Army, he worked as a reporter for Time magazine before joining the staff of The New Yorker in.
His reporting for The New Yorker on the racial integration of the University of Georgia was published in his first book, An Education in Georgi Calvin Bud Marshall Trillin is an American journalist, humorist, and novelist.
He is best known for his humorous writings about food and eating, but he has also written much serious journalism, comic verse, and several books of fiction.
Trillin attended public schools in Kansas City and went on to Yale University, where he served as chairman of the Yale Daily News and became a member of Scroll and Key before graduating inhe later served as a trustee of the university.
After a stint in the U, S. Army, he worked as a reporter for Time magazine before joining the staff of The New Yorker in.
His reporting for The New Yorker on the racial integration of the University of Georgia was published in his first book, An Education in Georgia.
He wrote the magazine's "U, S. Journal" series fromto, covering local events both serious and quirky throughout the United States, sitelink.