The Infiltrator: My Undercover Exploits in Right-wing America [Paperback]

Harmon Leon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2006

Called 'a cross between Michael Moore and South Park', gonzo journalist Harmon Leon shares his undercover exploits among fringe right-wingers in this riotously funny book where he exposes the harrowing and hilarious reality of living in red-state America. Follow Harmon in this twisted sampler of 'infiltration journalism' on each of his missions impossible as he dons various ingenious disguises, goes undercover, tries various ways to eke out a living, and then just barely escapes to report on the shocking and very funny truth about surviving in conservative America.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"You cannot but be amazed by the sheer guts of Harmon Leon. This book is great!" -- Carol Kolb, former editor-in-chief of The Onion

"[A] fast-paced read where gonzo journalism meets Onion-esque satire..." -- Austin Chronicle

About the Author

Harmon Leon (San Francisco, CA) is an award-winning journalist who has appeared on The Howard Stern Show, Penn and Teller: Bullshit!, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, E!, and NPR’s This American Life, and in The San Francisco Chronicle, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Details, Spin, Wired, The Guardian, and more. His first book, The Harmon Chronicles, won a 2003 Independent Publishers Award for humor. His second book, Republican like Me: Infiltrating Red-State, White-Ass, and Blue-Suit America, is widely enjoyed by blue-staters and others who possess a wicked sense of humor.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; First Edition edition (October 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591024668
• ISBN-13: 978-1591024668
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,648,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A top pick for any college-level journalism library., December 10, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Infiltrator: My Undercover Exploits in Right-wing America (Paperback)

Gonzo journalist Harmon Leon infiltrated the right-wing movement and published REPUBLICAN LIKE ME, a hard-hitting yet humor-laden take on Republican sentiments and insider experiences: now THE INFILTRATOR: MY UNDERCOVER EXPLOITS IN RIGHT-WING AMERICA arrives to expose more Republican views draws on Leon's underground experiences with O.J. Simpson, a civilian vigilante group on patrol for illegal aliens, and another group which eventually promotes him president. As an amazing story of 'infiltration journalist' techniques, it's also a top pick for any college-level journalism library.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Damn! This is funny stuff!, November 1, 2006

By 

Phil (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Infiltrator: My Undercover Exploits in Right-wing America (Paperback)

Harmon Leon, perhaps the most daring infiltration journalist of this or

any other time. I had to stop reading several times because I was laughing

so hard, though a lot of the places he ventures to (Minutemen, Patriotic Pro-war

skinheads, Promise Keepers) are really disturbing under the surface.

The Infiltrator: My Undercover Exploits In Right Wing America is a good look

at the modern state of our country.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Weak attempt at satire, June 28, 2007

By 

T. Goulter (Wellington, NZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Infiltrator: My Undercover Exploits in Right-wing America (Paperback)

This is not a funny book, though it certainly tries far too hard. The humor is strained, forced and relies mainly on Leon's failure to reconcile his notions of modern politics (which seem mainly gleaned from second-rate political cartoons) with the actions and attitudes of real people.

It's not clever - indeed, it's clear that Leon knows pretty much nothing about the politics he seeks to subvert and explore. His attempts to skewer the hypocrisy of Right-wing America just make him come off like a prejudiced dick. And if you can't hit a target as huge as Right-wing hypocrisy, how bad is your aim anyway?

As a work of journalism it's desperately weak: reportage is mixed with snide parenthetical observations gleaned from Leon's cartoonishly limited worldview, intercut with "this equals this and this is bad so HAH!!!" comparisons that are tenuous at best, just plain made-up at worst.

It's not particularly brave: much of the book takes place in Leon's living room. Most of the (material that passes for) really cutting observations are not actually delivered to their targets, just slipped into snide parentheses that betray Leon's grade-school-level powers of reasoning.

Much of what Leon observes isn't really bad at all, just deemed by him to be "uncool"; so he laces it with ridiculous extremes unconnected to the example at hand. Hey, it's fun to make fun of other peoples' beliefs if those people might know people who disagree with your politics!

The primary thrust of many chapters seems to be nothing so much as Harmon Leon trying to convince us that Harmon Leon is SO COOL!: the literary equivalent of a drunk guy telling you embarrassing, exaggerated stories about what he said this one time to this one guy and it was great, aw man, you shoulda been there!

After all this, it seems churlish to fault the book for having apparently not been edited at all: spelling errors and grammatical flaws are rife, and many quotes and passages make next to no sense. This may be due to their having been chopped and changed to fit into a book, or may just be due to Leon's inability to write or tell a story.

But hey, I'm a strong supporter of left-wing politics and subverting the system and all that good stuff - so, if the Harmon Leon character depicted in this book is any indication, "churlish dick" is my middle name.