Customer Reviews

The Secret Lives of Citizens: Pursuing the Promise of American Life

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Mr. Geoghegan has once again proved he is the spiritual heir of Bob LaFollette, FDR and the Great Society. His penetrating yet personal account of his struggle to understand the neo-conservative/post-liberal/deconstructionist world is moving, exhilirating and sad. He squirms at the notions of modern solutions to poverty, incarceration and civil action not by going throug the usual verbal hand-wringing, but by seeing for himself how the system is failing so many. This is a contemporary version of Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London," only set in Chicago and rooted in a troubling look at social justice. If you have any interest in the future of your role as a citizen and person of conscience, read this book.

I don't generally read political science or current events, but from the first sentence, I couldn't put this down. There are so many studies about why Americans choose to vote: This is the first book I've come across that explains it from the point of view of the citizen/voter. Even if Geoghegan isn't your average voter, he has talked to all sorts of citizens, in church, at Union meetings, at Harvard, in the ghetto, in bars (especially in bars) about the experience of being a citizen, trying to help, or trying to get help, from government. He writes with a particularly American voice that combines zeal with doubt, ambivalence with pig-headedness, and an ability to dream with total honesty. Geoghegan--who's book, "How to be for Labor When its Flat on its Back" is also great--has an amazing ear for voices, so this book is fall-off-your-chair funny in places, and devastating in others. It taught me a great deal about government--how it works, or doesn't work--and why I should care. Anyone with a sense of humor who cares about whether local politics are still functioning should enjoy reading this.

This book presents the author's evolution through government work and civic activism. It also presents a neat, personalized history of recent progressive politics. This mix of memoir and history has been criticized by some book reviews, but actually contributes to the effectiveness of the book. One can forgive the occasional self-absorption because the book has many useful insights and the author offers himself up as an example of someone who has the uncomfortable thoughts that bedevil many "progressives". A good read for people who are liberals, but not idiots.

At first The Secret Lives of Citizens was a very slow read, but it picked up about half way through with the first mentions of helping the poor. Although some of Geoghegan's views come off as realisitic, his hope that this book could possibly change the way that other citizens act is too idealistic. It may touch some readers but probably infrequently. One of the problems that we found in the book was Geoghegan's view of American cities. We think that his method at picking a city was absurd becuase no one city is perfect. He likes Chicago because it is centrally located, but most cities in the Midwest are centrally located. On the other hand, it is good that he found a city that he felt strongly about because it motivated him to work to better it. In The Secret Lives of Citizens, Geoghegan writes about helping society. For example, he tried fighting a tuberculosis case to help the poor. This is very commendable, but we do not think that fighting one tuberculosis case will change the fate of the poor in Chicago. Geoghegan relates every idea and fact to himself. At times, I wonder how connected he really is to the poor. Also, we questioned if Geoghegan crusaded to help others or to make himself feel more like a citizen. The Secret Lives of Citizens has the possiblity of affecting readers, but Geoghegan has written it for one person, himself. We often wondered what his views were because they were covered by many stories and conversations. Unfortunately, at the end of the book, we were still left wondering what a citizen can do.

I do enjoy Tom's writing. Honest. I also have practiced labor law in Chicago since the early 80's and he once wrote in the New Republic

an excruciatingly funny, dead-on description of the Felliniesque aspects of practicing law in Chicago. (The gnome-like cleks that know more civil procedure than Dershowitz and who despise the well-paid lawyers who don't) But Tom ......Snap out of it! Secret Lives is just one snivel after another and really , does anyone care whether another Harvard-trained lawyer has failed to find hapiness in the law? I've read much more compelling tales o' woe in Dear Abbey. The most unpardonable aspect of the book though is that it's so poorly written; it reminds me of one of the odder notations I occasionally find at the bottom of letters from lawyers: "Dictated, but not read." Well I read it but ti wasn't worth my time.

I read a review of this book in the NY Times book review and it seemed to offer a novel if not creative view of the demise of participatory democracy. I found incessant whinning by a third rate mind, the kind that goes "wow" to a great idea but can not follow through to implications and meaning. He treats us to why he came to Chicago 'he didn't like Washington'. Why he didn't run for office 'his friends wouldn't like him'. His awareness of Chicago was Oak Park high school in the 50's and you know why he never was more than a clerk in his career. I am distressed people are sucked into buying this book by expecting an experiential treatment of politics. I received an experiential explanation of a simple person who cannot comprehend his society in the most elementary way and is too dimwitted to understand his ignorance. The experience is the dumb and dumber of political exposition go to Chicago. Don't buy the book. Talk to your preteen children. They will say the same thing. PAM