Synopses & Reviews
Renata Adler is one of the most original, incisive and witty writers active in American letters today. Whether it be fiction, reportage or essay, her work is marked by a truly extraordinary intellect and a luminous prose that is penetrating, precise, deft and, often, very funny.
In this new collection of essays, spanning three decades, Adler's wide-ranging reflections remain centered on two foci of interest: the politics by which we organize our common and public world, and the media, which increasingly filter our information and how we actually experience that world.
Part One, "Politics," opens with two major and deeply disturbing essays "Searching for the Real Nixon" and "Reflection of Political Scandal." Adler marshals all the force of her analytical intelligence to uncover the real scandal hidden behind Watergate, while examining the place scandal has played in American political history. In three essays on the Supreme Court, Adler examines the third branch of government, focussing especially on the failed nomination of Robert Bork and Chief Justice Rehnquist's peculiar understanding of the history of the Court. And in her two brilliant analyses of the Clinton scandals, "Decoding the Starr Report" and "Monica's Story", she lays out with remarkable clarity both what actually happened and the serious threat to the Republic which Mr. Starr and his methods of investigation represented.
Part Two, "Media", contains an extended report from Biafra during their civil war and a detailed examination of the National Guard, occasioned by the killings at Kent State. There follows a series of superbly funny essays written during Adler's brief stint as television critic for The New Yorker, as well as the previously unpublished "G. Gordon Liddy in America", in which Adler joins Liddy on the publicity tour for his autobiography "Will". Returning to the literary world of Manhattan, she examines Pauline Kael's film reviews in "House Critic" and considers the responsibilities imposed on any member of the Republic of Letters. The book closes with an extended examination of the controversy with the New York Times occasioned by her book, Gone, The Last Days of the New Yorker.
For anyone seriously interested in the ethics of journalism as it attempts to span the two realms of politics and media Canaries in the Mineshaft is a feast for the mind and yet another proof that Renata Adler is one of the most delightful and brilliant writers of our day.
Review
"Renata Adler is an amazing writer of fiction . . . as honest and direct as she is ingenious and thoughtful."--John Updike
"An observer of acute intelligence and discriminating sensibility."--Encounter
Synopsis
Renata Adler is one of the most original, incisive and witty writers active in American letters today. Whether it be fiction, reportage or essay, her work is marked by a truly extraordinary intellect and a luminous prose that is penetrating, precise, deft and, often, very funny. In this new collection-which includes the early and definitive profile of the National Guard; the widely discussed and still controversial review of Pauline Kael; and the first major piece about foreign contributions to American political campaigns-Adler's wide-ranging reflections become focused on two increasingly fused interests: the politics which govern our public world and the media, which now actively distort and misrepresent information about that world.
For anyone seriously interested in politics and the media Canaries in the Mineshaft is yet another proof that Renata Adler is one of the most delightful and brilliant writers of our day.
About the Author
Renata Adler is the author of two novels,
Speedboat and
Pitch Dark, and four books of nonfiction:
A Year in the Dark,
Toward a Radical Middle,
Reckless Disregard and
Gone: The Last Days of the New Yorker.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part 1
Searching for the Real Nixon Scandal: A Last Inference
Reflections on Political Scandal
The Justices and the Journalists
The Extreme Nominee
Coup at the Court
Decoding the Starr Report
Monica's Story
Part 2
Letter from Biafra
But Ohio. Well, I Guess That's One State Where They Elect to Lock and Load: The National Guard
Concentration, Squares, Jeopardy, and Bouillon Cubes
Afternoon Television: Unhappiness Enough, and Time
Who's Here? What Time Is It?
Cookie, Oscar, Grover, Herry, Ernie, and Company
G. Gordon Liddy in America
House Critic
A Court of No Appeal
Notes
Copyright Acknowledgments
Index