Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President [Hardcover]

Unknown (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 369 pages
• Publisher: Unknown; First Edition edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312242689
• ISBN-13: 978-0312242688
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,948,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nick Mamatas. Author of two novels; Move Under Ground (Night Shade 2004, Prime 2006) and Under My Roof (Soft Skull Press, 2007), two collections; 3000MPH In Every Direction At Once (Prime 2003) and You Might Sleep... (Prime 2009), and the novella Northern Gothic (Soft Skull, 2001).

He is also the editor of the anthologies The Urban Bizarre (Prime 2003), Phantom #0 (Prime 2005), Spicy Slipstream Stories (with Jay Lake, Lethe 2008), and Haunted Legends (with Ellen Datlow, Tor 2010).

Nick also co-edited the magazine Clarkesworld for two years, which was nominated for the Hugo and World Fantasy awards. Stories from Clarkesworld have been collected in a pair of anthologies: Realms and Realms 2 (Wyrm Publishing 2008 and 2009).

Nick's own short stories have appeared in literary journals such as Mississippi Review online, subTERRAIN, and Per Contra, slicks including Razor and Spex, and fantasy and horror magazines and anthologies including New Dark Voices 2, Poe's Lighthouse, ChiZine, and Lovecraft Unbound.

His fiction has been nominated for the Bram Stoker awards three times, the International Horror Guild Award, and Germany's Kurd-Laßwitz Preis. His reportage and essays have appeared in the Village Voice, The Smart Set, H+, Clamor, In These Times, various anthologies. With Kap Su Seol he translated and edited the first English edition of a firsthand account of South Korea's Kwangju massacre--Kwangju Diary (UCLA Asian Pacific, 1999).

Nick now lives in the California Bay Area, where he is editor of tradebooks for VIZ Media and edits both Japanese science fiction novels in translation and books associated with Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

134 of 143 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every American Should Own A Copy of This Book!, May 19, 2003

By 

Alex (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President (Paperback)

If you want to find out more about public officials, start with the books they don't want you to read. Fortunate Son, James Hatfield's swan song, amasses the singlemost informative and chilling overview of Bush the Younger, a man of wealth, privilege, and arrogance nearing Shakespearean proportions. In the wake of its destruction by its original publisher, subsequent revival by Soft Skull Press, as well as the tragic suicide of its author, this book has undergone several revisions. This third revision, featuring a new forward by Greg Palast and Mark Crispin Miller, is as outstanding as they come, the antithesis to all of the Neoconservative-sanctioned Bush books flooding the market. Approached as a cautionary tale, Fortunate Son's enormous scope is as insightful as it is well-written. An amazing work by an author whose brilliance resonates through every chapter.

141 of 154 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars well researched biography of George W. Bush, September 9, 2003

By 

"truthandjustice" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President (Paperback)

As with any book, like Al Franken's, "Lies....", any attempt to prevent it from being published, makes people want to know why, and that is why I read this book. It is well researched, there are pages and pages of sources to back up his statements. He had tried numerous times to talk to Bush about the book, but was ignored and then he and his family were threatened, they even knew the baby's name, if he published the book. Now that really got my interest. When I started to read the book I was puzzled by their actions. He didn't sound biased, in fact, as you read about Bush in his childhood you got the feeling he kind a liked him. Bush was a little wild growing up, drank a lot and chased women, which a good portion of young men do at that time in their lives. There's even a few stories, if he had wanted to, he could have used malice, but he didn't, in fact, I ended up grinning at a couple of his antics. He was writing a biography and tried to write it as accurate and truthful as he knew how. He told about Bush's drinking problems, how losing his little sister hurt him, about him accepting Jesus and his turning to sobriety and his business deals, etc. As Bush matured, we get a look at a different person, one who doesn't act so christian. The man he has turned into is one that is downright scary for the people of our country. Through the name and position of his father, we find that young Bush is rescued and backed financially by moneyed people. People with money who expected to be rewarded for their generosity and that is repeated over and over. This book clearly shows us an accurate picture of the man in the White House. If there are things in this book that he and his party don't like (and there are many things), it is not the fault of the author, for he just reported the facts, Bush did the deeds. We all, sometime or another, have to reap what we sow. I would recommend that everyone should read this book before the next election so that you will know who this man truly is before deciding your vote.

84 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fortunate Son - Unfortunate Country, April 14, 2003

By 

T. J LeClair "profdragon" (Franklin, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President (Paperback)

This is one of those books you will love if you don't like the Bush family and their politics. The prose is engaging; The plot turns razor sharp corners at high speed; The revelations are overwhelming.

The questions I asked myself after reading the book are:

Why should I care if the author had a checkered backround?
How many of the facts are true? The ones I could check are.
How did the Bush family manage to suppress the stories in the book?
Why have other politicians been vilified publicly for fewer and less serious infractions?

This is a book as revealing about the political system as it is about the Bush family. By the way, "W" does seem to be a sympathetic if somewhat flawed person in this book which makes one ask why all the hypocracy in trying to suppress it?