Leap Year [Hardcover]

Steve Erickson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 1988 presidential campaign serves as Erickson's springboard for a quirky free-floating meditation on the bankruptcy of American politics. He berates the Right for "false faith" and for grossly deforming the conservative tradition; he chides the Left for too often hating its own country. The apocalyptic tone and surreal techniques of his novels ( Tours of the Black Clock , etc.) find their way into this campaign jaunt: pursuing Bush, Dukakis, Hart, Jackson et al., he keeps running into the specter of Sally Hemings, the slave of Thomas Jefferson. Hemings, in this narrative, is Jefferson's sex partner; her torrid confessions are intended to highlight the statesman's moral failure and white America's tendency to self-betrayal. Erickson also rambles about the "nuclear imagination," an ability to stare into the abyss, but he is most effective delivering scathing attacks on nearly all the 1988 presidential contenders and on the Bush administration.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Simon Schuster Trade; First Edition edition (1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671671340
• ISBN-13: 978-0671671341
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,341,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steve Erickson is the author of nine novels, including 2012's THESE DREAMS OF YOU, and two nonfiction works. His books have appeared on best-of-the-year lists in Newsweek, the Washington Post BookWorld, the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice and the New York Times Book Review. He's the editor of the literary journal Black Clock, published by the California Institute of the Arts where he teaches; he also writes about film for Los Angeles magazine and the current presidential campaign for American Prospect. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters' award in literature.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Politicians = clueless. 1988-2008, January 27, 2008

By 

Dick Johnson (Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leap Year (Paperback)

Erickson lambastes the Right and the Left in this journey through the election of 1988 (copyright 1989). Much of it could have been written about any election since by merely changing the names. Even though the specifics are dated, it is still a fun, funny and intelligent read in 2008. Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Erickson turns politians into interesting people, July 23, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Leap Year (Paperback)

Leap Year takes the elections of 1988, one of the least interesting political years in my memory, and breaks it down step by step, candidate by candidate, and shows us exactly what was going on in his or her head at each step of the way. Erickson approaches the elections with the mind of a brilliant novelist, combining great personal stories of the conventions and meeting candidates in obscure locations with analytical genius, making almost everything about politics, even issues not discussed in the book, easily accessible to anyone. I did feel that the sections dealing with Sally Hemmings seemed a little irrelevant and confusing, especially when the same character is approached so well in Arc d'X. But otherwise, the surreal tone so familiar to Erickson's novels worked amazingly well. Read this book with a highlighter so you don't miss a thing

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, February 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Leap Year (Paperback)

On the surface this is one view of the 1988 presidential race.In reality,it is an epic(but concise) capsule of our country:past,present,and future.Check it out