Synopses & Reviews
• Masterful writer: In
The New York Times , David Brooks hailed Matt Labash as “consistently one of the best magazine writers in the country.” He is not alone. Considered one of American’s most brilliant writers by the journalism community, this long-awaited book debut presents Labash at his very best. A latter day Leibling, Labash’s collection will take its place alongside books by writers such as Calvin Trillin and P.J. O’Rourke..
• A unique voice that’s well-connected: Labash’s well-informed insights, self-deprecating wit, and provocative candor feature regularly in The Weekly Standard and have also appeared in Washingtonian Magazine , American Spectator , and on Slate.com. Extremely well-liked and respected, his media contacts are many and varied. He has declined invitations to appear on everything from HBO Sports to Meet the Press —but is finally willing to make the rounds. As LA Weekly wrote after his Detroit piece, “it’s not new to give props to Matt Labash.”.
• Remarkable collection: Full of wit, insight, and a trenchant grasp of the American scoundrel, Labash’s masterful profiles of men on the nation’s fringe—Pirate Kingfish Gov. Edwin Johnson, The Right Reverend Dr. Al Sharpton, Dirty Trickster Roger Stone—are published alongside devastating pieces on such dead or dying cities as Detroit and New Orleans; work celebrating such joyous, but overlooked pockets of American culture as Revival music and Rebirth Brass Band; and scathing, hilarious briefs on the nation’s great phonies—Michael Moore, Louis Farrakhan, Donald Trump to name a few..
Review
“Matt Labash’s book rocks. He is Hunter S. Thompson on acid.” — P.J. O’Rourke
Review
“Consistently one of the best magazine writers in the country.” — David Brooks, The New York Times
Review
“I started reading Matt Labash because I was beginning to be afraid that the devil had all the best tunes: now it's the tunes themselves by which I am seduced.” — Christopher Hitchens
Review
“Matt Labash is, simply put, one of the best journalists in the country. He's a brilliant writer—hilarious, profound and sharp as an X-Acto. His prose can do the impossible—even humanize Dick Cheney.” — A.J. Jacobs
Review
“In a just world, Matt Labash would be celebrated as the heir to Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson and other writers in the 1960s and 1970s who were corralled under the rubric of ‘new journalism’. . . . Like the best of the new-journalism practitioners, Mr. Labash inhabits a story so thoroughly that readers feel as if they're at his side, seeing events with his sharp eye, privy to his wisecracks, savoring moments when he reels in what feels like the truth.” —Mark Lasswell, Wall Street Journal
Review
“Every now and then, a collection of remarkable stories from a magazine writer has the effect of unleashing a significant new voice on an unsuspecting public. Tom Wolfe's Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby comes to mind. And so it is with Matt Labash's wonderful Fly Fishing with Darth Vader." —Mark Warren, Esquire
Synopsis
In this debut collection, beloved journalist Labash chronicles the outsized and outrageous characters who populate America's murky periphery.
Synopsis
Matt Labash has regularly regaled us with his incisive wit, self-deprecation, and provocative candor. Blessed with his uncanny ability for extracting comic humanity from even the wariest politicians, con artists, and rogues, as well as for shedding light on the darkest corners of our American experience, Labash is a singular talent, and Fly Fishing with Darth Vader for the first time assembles his best feature writing, showcasing the true breadth of his work.
Labash's masterful profiles of the outsized and outrageous characters who populate America's murky periphery -- Pirate Kingfish Governor Edwin Edwards, Recovering Crackhead Mayor Marion Barry, Dirty Trickster Roger Stone -- are published alongside devastating pieces on the dying cities of our nation such as Detroit and New Orleans. His hilarious tirades on the health hazards of Facebook and the virtues of dodgeball seamlessly segue into stories celebrating such joyous but overlooked pockets of American culture as old-timey gospel and the musicians of the Big Easy's Second Line. He chronicles Al Sharpton's eating habits on the campaign trail, fishes the Snake River with Dick Cheney, and investigates the great white waste of time that is our neighbor to the north.
Full of his signature insight and humor and marked by Labash's trenchant grasp of the American scoundrel, Fly Fishing with Darth Vader is the long-awaited debut collection by one of the funniest and most gifted journalists writing today, sure to be cherished and talked about for years to come.
Synopsis
• Masterful writer: In
The New York Times , David Brooks hailed Matt Labash as “consistently one of the best magazine writers in the country.” He is not alone. Considered one of American’s most brilliant writers by the journalism community, this long-awaited book debut presents Labash at his very best. A latter day Leibling, Labash’s collection will take its place alongside books by writers such as Calvin Trillin and P.J. O’Rourke..
• A unique voice that’s well-connected: Labash’s well-informed insights, self-deprecating wit, and provocative candor feature regularly in The Weekly Standard and have also appeared in Washingtonian Magazine , American Spectator , and on Slate.com. Extremely well-liked and respected, his media contacts are many and varied. He has declined invitations to appear on everything from HBO Sports to Meet the Press —but is finally willing to make the rounds. As LA Weekly wrote after his Detroit piece, “it’s not new to give props to Matt Labash.”.
• Remarkable collection: Full of wit, insight, and a trenchant grasp of the American scoundrel, Labash’s masterful profiles of men on the nation’s fringe—Pirate Kingfish Gov. Edwin Johnson, The Right Reverend Dr. Al Sharpton, Dirty Trickster Roger Stone—are published alongside devastating pieces on such dead or dying cities as Detroit and New Orleans; work celebrating such joyous, but overlooked pockets of American culture as Revival music and Rebirth Brass Band; and scathing, hilarious briefs on the nation’s great phonies—Michael Moore, Louis Farrakhan, Donald Trump to name a few..
About the Author
Matt Labash is a senior writer at The Weekly Standard, where he has worked since 1995. He lives in Owings, Maryland, with his wife and two children.