Imperial Caddy: The Rise of Dan Quayle in America and the Decline and Fall of Practically Everything Else [Hardcover]

Joe Queenan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1992

A humorous look at Vice President Quayle discusses wife Marilyn, the ten stupidest people in Washington after Dan Quayle, and other less-than-intelligent V.P.s throughout history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Quayle-bashers will find this literary pummeling of their man an unalloyed joy. Syndicated Washington Post columnist Queenan has done his homework and not lost his sense of humor while doing it. He begins by citing media descriptions of the vice president as a dimwit, a pinhead, a dolt, a chowderhead--and those appellations are just for starters. Then he goes to work on Quayle's home state of Indiana and the oddballs it has produced, from Ku Klux Klansman D. C. Stephenson through the Rev. Jim Jones to Axl Rose. Queenan determines that the state's native sons are a strange mixture of gullibility, mediocrity and weirdness. Next he turns to Marilyn Quayle, whom he depicts as the offspring of a wacky family devoted to a dispensational premillenialist conservative preacher, Robert B. Thieme Jr. Queenan even critiques Embrace the Serpent, the goofball thriller written by the second lady and her sister Nancy T. Northcott. Will Dan Quayle someday be elected to the Oval Office? Maybe so, concludes Queenan, who believes that since Andrew Jackson, we have had very few chief executives who were not bumblers, drunks, crooks or morons.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

What will humorists do for easy laughs if come November 4th J. Danforth Quayle isn't there to kick around anymore? Surely he has provided the best target since Spiro Who?, even before the infamous "you spell potato, I spell potatoe" episode. Oh sure, it's easy to trash Dan's military record, his grades, his golfing addiction; but what about the real evil? What about Marilyn? Not to worry, few of the Hoosierites are missed by Queenan. A very funny book, but if the polls are right, shortly after publication it might be a lame duck in your library.
- Pamela R. Daubenspeck, Warren-Trumbell Cty. P.L., Warren, Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Books; 1st edition (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1562829394
• ISBN-13: 978-1562829391
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,437,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not really about Dan Quayle, June 18, 2000

By 

David N. Reiss (Haymarket, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imperial Caddy: The Rise of Dan Quayle in America and the Decline and Fall of Practically Everything Else (Hardcover)

This book about Dan Quayle is not really about Dan Quayle. It is about the politcal life of the United States. The author just uses Dan Quayle as the pirism which he looks thru at the world of politcs and life in. It takes a bunch of pop shots at Quayle, but then, you knew that when you picked the book up.

Basically, the conclusion of the book is the the United States and the world can survive bad leadership. It has survived it in the past, and it can darn well surive it in the future.

It is also a very funny book. Which makes you want to read it.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Declining quality, April 3, 2000

By 

John Sugden (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imperial Caddy: The Rise of Dan Quayle in America and the Decline and Fall of Practically Everything Else (Hardcover)

Joe Queenan is a magazine journalist and this becomes apparent in his book. Whilst he can be exceptionally funny, he loses steam with each additional chapter. As a three to five chapter monograph this would have been ideal if unmarketable. Queenan is still humourous and readable - I frequently found myself laughing aloud in the most innapropriate locations as I read this. However his other books are better.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Damn funny, and a bit scary, October 15, 2001

By 

jot - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imperial Caddy: The Rise of Dan Quayle in America and the Decline and Fall of Practically Everything Else (Hardcover)

Many a year after boy-Quayle has been out of the public eye this book is still a treat. Queenan does a nice little touch of history of the VP while adding nice little bits of humour. In this day and age of stupid people (um, Bush, um, Ashcroft, um, Powell...scary) this book helps you laugh a bit at these fools that lead the nation. Plus maybe question it a bit. Enjoy!