Tony Daniel says Chuck Palahiuk’s latest therapy-culture driven novel is a macabre, but interesting, tale.
Read the review here.
nonfiction
Tony Daniel Reviews Greg Gutfeld’s “The Plus” at the Federalist with a Tale of Punk Days of Yore
Greg Gutfeld’s new book “The Plus” advises readers to be positive and unconventional–to always look for the “plus” in each moment. Tony Daniel remembers a writer he knew who did just that.
“Behold the Punk,” Tony Daniel writes. “In some ways, he’s like the Dude from “The Big Lebowski.” I’ve never met anybody quite like him. He’s sui generis. At the same time, he is representative. Iconic. He’s got a flashlight. I have a crowbar in my hand. We are breaking into an apartment building somewhere in Georgetown. It’s a Sunday morning in the summer of 1988.”
Read the review here.
Tony Daniel Writing at the “Federalist” Says “The Summer House” by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois May Portend the Future of Publishing
“The survival and rebirth of the American novel does not, I am bold to say, depend upon the annual disgorgement of navel-gazers, LARPing revolutionaries, and mediocrities from the nation’s writing MFA programs, most destined for readerships in the low thousands,” Tony Daniel writers. “It may, however, depend on authors like Brendan DuBois and craft-guild systems like James Patterson’s, which have together developed a large and discerning readership.”
Read the review here.
Tony Daniel Reviews ‘The Splendid and the Vile’ by Erik Larson in the ‘Federalist’
“I like to think there is a little Churchill bust within the Oval Office of every thoughtful person’s soul—a bust that needs the occasional tending-to and buffing up,” Tony Daniel writes.
Read the review here.
Tony Daniel Argues in the ‘Federalist’ that the Destruction of Public Statues in America is Shortsighted and Wrong
“When a mob tears down a statue, they are tearing down art,” Tony Daniel writes. “The artistic aspect of a sculpture is more important than its historic significance, and grows more so over time. All of this wrecking is a great shame. Furthermore, moving the statues to ‘safe spaces’ for political reasons plays right into the hands of the destroyers.”
Read the article here.
Tony Daniel Reviews Mike Rowe’s Book, ‘The Way I Heard It,’ at the ‘Federalist’
Tony Daniel says Mike Rowe’s new book, which arises from Rowe’s popular podcast, reminds him of the great Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story” broadcasts from his youth. Rowe also divides the biographical sketches in the book with tales of his own coming of age and professional ups and downs, which are amusing and at times touching. Tony calls the book a pitch for a certain amused, easy way of looking at life, and a tale told by a smart, polished communicator who has figured out how to tug at your heartstrings and whack your funny bone without trying to stick a knife in your back in the process. Read the review here.
Tony Daniel Reviews ‘Deceiving the Sky’ by Bill Gertz at the ‘Federalist’
Tony Daniel says Deceiving the Sky, longtime U.S. national security reporter Bill Gertz’s book on mainland China’s aggression toward the U.S., is a helpful tonic to decades of wishful thinking regarding China by many in the West.
Read the review here.
Tony Daniel Reviews ‘Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee’ for the ‘Federalist’
The true crime work, Furious Hours, explores a lurid 1977 southern murder trial that almost inspired Harper Lee to write another book—but the author’s pretentious account leans heavily on inaccurate and unflattering Southern stereotypes, writes Tony Daniel.
“Furious Hours is readable when Cep is immersed in the real details of this macabre-yet-entertaining pile of horrific skullduggery,” Tony says. “But when she tries to shape her material into a fable of intolerance and stymied artistic creation, she comes off as a race-baiter and, worse, as an inept observer who is out of her depth on matters of history and human motivation.”
Read the review here.
Tony Daniel Reviews ‘Top Gun: An American Story,’ the Memoir of Topgun Founder Dan Pedersen, at the ‘Federalist’
Tony describes how in Dan Pedersen’s engaging new memoir, Top Gun: An American Story, Topgun’s original commanding officer recounts his role as the founder of the famed fighter jet program. Pedersen makes the case that what matters is the man, not the machine. Read the review here.
Tony Daniel Reviews Essay Collection ‘White’ by Bret Easton Ellis at the ‘Federalist’
Tony Daniel says that novelist and cultural commentator Bret Easton Ellis’s new collection of essays, White tears into the proponents of “woke” culture for eroding free expression and encouraging victimhood. Despite some melodramatic overwriting and amusing naiveté regarding the excesses of the identity-politics-drunk mob, Ellis’s judgement is sound: freedom of expression is all-important to an artist or writer.
Read the review here.
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