George & Martha [Paperback]

Karen Finley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2006

An outrageous political satire by America's most daring performance artist and writer.

George and Martha meet in a seedy motel room on the night before the Republican National Convention. Their affair goes way back, before George stole the election, before Martha built an empire on fascist domesticity. As usual, George numbs his pain over waging perpetual war with cocaine and the promise of kinky sex. Martha is forced to take a long view of her life as she suffers the public humiliation of corporate scandal, on the brink of going to prison. Written in the style of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, George & Martha is Karen Finley's most scandalous work to date, a hilarious satire that takes a radical stand on political power, psychosexual relations between men and women, and the current state of affairs. Lavishly illustrated with drawings by the author.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As one would expect from '80s erotic art performance queen (and NEA witch-hunt target) Karen Finley, this fantasy about a tryst between George Bush and Martha Stewart in a seedy Gotham hotel—the thread count on their pillowcases isn't even 200, as Martha astutely points out —pushes a lot of buttons. It depicts domination, rather lackadaisical fellatio, spanking, cocaine abuse, diaper play and baby wipes, and much pop psychoanalysis, all hung on a George and Martha as broadly drawn as Finley's doodley caricatures that adorn the pages: George is the alcoholic, Jesus-infatuated, dimwit reviled by leftists (he claims to get sexually excited when he sees soldiers or orders an execution); Martha, the narcissistic control freak who arouses herself with mental scripts of aggression like Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Finley captures Bush's uncertain relation to language (hard to quote here) and through that lens George comes out as surprisingly down-home and playful, as when he delightedly wraps himself, nude, in the plastic that his dry-cleaned suit comes in. The whole is and will be greeted as a provocation, but it is more like a highly humorous riff on dedicated celeb watching. 200 original drawings. (Apr.)
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Review

A hilariously devastating satire... (Lawrence Ferlinghetti )

It began with George and Martha Washington. Must it end with George Bush and Martha Stewart? With a nod to Edward Albee, Karen Finley invents a wild tale of their brief hotel encounter on the eve of Martha's imprisonment, illustrated with faux-genteel drawings. Fasten your seatbelts–it's a bumpy, hilarious night. (Margo Jefferson )

This brilliant fantasy shines a devastating light on the pathologies now at the top of our cracked system. (Mark Crispin Miller )

Scarily hilarious ... Nobody's mind works like Karen Finley's. (Amy Heckerling )

No one limns the dark wet palpitating heart of corpo-sexual-psycho-America like Karen Finley. George & Martha is a nasty, hysterical, weirdly plausible bitch-slap of a book that might have been fashioned by Jonathan Swift after a night of caffeinated madness with Georges Bataille and Terry Southern. If our president had an ounce of manhood in his pants,, he would nominate Karen Finley for the Supreme Court. But after George & Martha, she's more likely to end up in Guantanamo. (Jerry Stahl )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 105 pages
• Publisher: Verso; 1 edition (April 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844670643
• ISBN-13: 978-1844670642
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,376,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

KAREN FINLEY's raw and transgressive performances have long provoked controversy and debate. She has appeared and exhibited her visual art, performances, and plays internationally. The author of many books including A Different Kind of Intimacy , George & Martha , and Shock Treatment, and most recently The Reality Shows. She is a professor at the Tisch School of Art and Public Policy at NYU.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sheer Brilliance!, July 6, 2006

By 

Antonin Rabastens "A. R." (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: George & Martha (Paperback)

An ideal summer read for the alternatively-minded: brisk, hilarious, and smart as all hell. Pass it along!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fearless!, March 20, 2006

By 

brooklyn books - See all my reviews

This review is from: George & Martha (Paperback)

a must read! an outrageous story of sex and politics, as only karen finley could tell. read it. pass it on.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outrageous and Wonderful, March 20, 2006

By 

L. Loveless (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: George & Martha (Paperback)

George & Martha is hilarious, filled with wonderful illustrations and crazy scenarios. Karen Finley's smart and radical idea of George W. Bush and Martha Stewart having an on-going affair is brilliant. Their somewhat twisted relationship manages to capture all that's currently wrong with this country. Politically smart and sexually charged it's laugh out loud funny but cry inside tragic. Read this book!