Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys [Hardcover]

Matt Labash (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2010

• 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..

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Journalist Labash takes readers to the fringes in his portraits of people and places outside the mainstream and, very often, beyond our ken. His subjects are outlandish and unforgettable: take Dave Mudcat Saunders, the hunting, cussing, NASCAR-loving political strategist who promises to deliver the rural white vote for the Democrats. Or Kinky Friedman, the Jewish cowboy running for governor of Texas under the campaign slogan Why the Hell Not? His profiles of disgraced former Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry, corrupt former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Vice President Dick Cheney stand out for their affecting portrayals of the humanity behind the larger-than-life personas. On occasion, Labash settles for lampoon and ad hominem attacks rather that insightful critique, as in his too-easy rant against Facebook or his mean-spirited report from the floor of an academic conference on adult entertainment. But when he sticks to profiling the antics of the lunatic journalists, political hacks, and ego-loving candidates that he so clearly adores, he gives readers a real glimpse at the strangeness and silliness that suffuse American political life. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

For the article that lends its title to the book, Weekly Standard writer Labash went fly-fishing with then vice president Dick Cheney and recalls another, more appealing and passionate side of the famously taciturn man. Labash locates the quirkiness in a variety of political figures in this essay collection. He admits to liking the almost universally disliked Republican operative Roger Stone, who delights in political intrigue more than political ideology. Among others Labash profiles are former Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry and former California gubernatorial candidate and now governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. On popular culture, he skewers Facebook, lambastes Markos Moulitsas Zuñiga of Daily Kos fame and netroot bloggers in general, and explores the complexities of a Christian professional wrestler and a redneck Democrat. The book begins with a heartfelt portrait of Detroit as the nation’s ashtray, chronicling efforts of his friend and Detroit News reporter Charlie LeDuff to save a dying city, and closes with a loving look at post-Katrina New Orleans through the eyes of musicians, including a ragtag jazz-funk band. Whatever their politics, readers will appreciate Labash’s energetic style and biting insights. --Vanessa Bush

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (February 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439159971
• ISBN-13: 978-1439159972
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #779,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fun ride, February 26, 2010

By 

Sam "E." (Detroit) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys (Hardcover)

The book is a collection of long form journalism stories most of which were originally written for the Weekly Standard. Despite what you might think though if that was your only knowledge the book is 1. Not really a political book in any partisan sense and 2. Quite edgy. The book starts with a portrait of Detroit, that is compelling but perhaps uneccesarilly hopeless and ends with a piece on New Orleans which was my favorite in between are a number of pieces on political eccentrics including Donald Trump, Al Sharpton, Jim Traficant, Marian Berry and fringe California gubernatorial and presedential candidates. Sprinkled in between are stories about topics ranging from a pseudo-academic porn convention, dodgeball, facebook, a cd collection of spirituals, and a dailykos bloggers convention in Vegas. Throughout Labash is funny and insightful. Occasionally he does veer towards being too cynical such as in the piece about the Kos convention, though it should be noted that his objections had more to do with the form of communication on Kos and not the content perse.

A WSJ article I read compared Labash to Tom Wolfe or Hunter Thompson. I can't speak for the Thompson, comparison but the Wolfe comparison while not completely off base is a little misleading. Most of Labash's works have a much more overtly comedic tone to them Wolfe's writings, think of it as being like Joel Stein doing long form journalism.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good to the Last Page, April 9, 2010

By 

Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" (Phoenix, AZ.) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys (Hardcover)

Humor, scandal, and/or empathy writers usually wear thin before the third chapter - their talent isn't that good, or the material is a badly dated collection of material most no longer have any interest n. Not so with Matt Labash - he's good to the last page, even though the material is a wee bit old.

Labash begins with "Detroit - The City where Sirens Never Sleep," and tells of schools that haven't ordered new textbooks in 19 years and the lowest high school graduation rate of any large district (24.9%), a city with half the population of 1950 and an estimated 60,000 vacant houses that once gave its key to the city to Saddam Hussein. Where 47% of adults are functionally illiterate, the local football team was 0-14, and the populace has been honored as America's 'fattest city,' and its 'sexual disease capital.' The sirens never stop - driven by arson in abandoned homes, factories; its abandoned train station may be next. At the same time, Labash also visits with a homeless person living under a bridge, and possessing more common sense than most of those driving overhead.

The title, "Fly Fishing with Darth Vader" obviously refers to V.P. Cheney. Expecting a nasty hit piece, I instead found a delightful story of another side of Mr. Cheney - an ordinary guy with a strong interest in fly-fishing and those who do it. It's all 'catch and release' - even the trout come out good, and I can't wait to see more the great Wyoming scenery described by Labash as he fly-fishes with the V.P.

Other treats include the life of an evangelical wrestler, and executives and managers acting like kids in an effort to keep employees happy so they, in turn, keep customers happy. It's "The Office" all day long, an antidote to dour-faced efficiency experts and sophomoric business guru cliches - all backed up by 'research' and stories told by funsultants.

In between, Labash also writes with empathy of his visits with a 9/11 widow.

Labash is truly a multi-faceted writer, a man with a wide range of talents.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mudcat, et al, February 23, 2010

By 

Roland Lazenby - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys (Hardcover)

I spend a fair amount of time hanging out with Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, and Labash nails that profile while finding humor in all the man's complexities. He does a tour of politic's characters. He's found the right people, and Labash knows how to render them, taking them right down to the wood. It's a great read.

Roland Lazenby
author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon