Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire [Paperback]

Matt Taibbi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0802170412 | ISBN-13: 978-0802170415

Smells Like Dead Elephants is a brilliant collection from Matt Taibbi, “a political reporter with the gonzo spirit that made Hunter S. Thompson and P. J. O’Rourke so much fun” (The Washington Post). Bringing together Taibbi’s most incisive and hilarious work from his “Road Work” column in Rolling Stone, Smells Like Dead Elephants shines an unflinching spotlight on the corruption, dishonesty, and sheer laziness of our leaders. Taibbi has plenty to say about George W. Bush, Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, and all the rest, but he doesn’t just hit inside the Beltway. He gets involved in the action, infiltrating Senator Conrad Burns’s birthday party under disguise as a lobbyist for a fictional oil firm that wants to drill in the Grand Canyon. He floats into apocalyptic post-Katrina New Orleans in a dinghy with Sean Penn. He goes to Iraq as an embedded reporter, where he witnesses the mind-boggling dysfunction of our occupation and spends three nights in Abu Ghraib prison. And he reports from two of the most bizarre and telling trials in recent memory: California v. Michael Jackson and the evolution-vs.-intelligent-design trial in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Equally funny and shocking, this is excellent work from one of our most entertaining writers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat (October 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802170412
• ISBN-13: 978-0802170415
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #272,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The doctor is in., February 16, 2008

By 

David Shank "raoulduke" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire (Paperback)

As a longtime fan of Hunter S. Thompson's political reporting and social commentary I was first exposed to Matt Taibbi when i learned that he had inherited the very same job that the good Dr. HST held at the Foriegn Affairs Desk at Rolling Stone magazine. Pretty bold move to take that one on because nobody (I thought) could inherit that mantle from HST and do it justice. Well, I was wrong. Matt did it and did it well.

This book is a collection or articles (I assume from various sources - I don't recall seeing all of these in Rolling Stone). He takes us to see places and meet people we already think we know from the news stories of the day (or yesterday) and manages to make the stories (some now old and lame) fresh and new in the process.

My only complaint is the same one I had upon reading HST - severe depression at the state of our government and our fellow humans. Damn but the truth is painful and this book is full of truth.

You will love it. If you don't, there is probably something wrong with you.

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous tales of unspeakable events, November 23, 2008

By 

MZ (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire (Paperback)

In spite of the off-putting title, this book is a delectable collection of Taibbi's habit-forming Rolling Stone essays on politics in the Bush era. His topics range from Michael Jackson to Lynndie England to (my favorite) Tom DeLay.

He fearlessly travels to New Orleans (with Sean Penn, as it happens) to see the Katrina disaster firsthand; he gets embedded with the troops in Iraq, then dis-embeds to go inside Abu Ghraib in the company of a mercenary. He is suitably appreciative and humble in the company of the soldiers (but not the contractors) with whom he is traveling. But the most horrifying story may be the one about Taibbi's time in the company of Bernie Sanders, the independent Congressman from Vermont, as bills he works on in the Republican Congress get snuffed out one by one. Whatever rules used to exist are either ignored or rewritten, all without regard for fairness or decency or even, quite possibly, for legality. It's the most stunning up-close look at a dysfunctional government a reader could stand.

Taibbi has been referred to as a "gonzo" journalist, and indeed there is a bit--just enough--of his "self" in the reporting; but he is mainly a deeply insightful observer and chronicler of things unseemly and egregious. While I regretted the very occasional occurrence of a superfluous four-letter word (usually, they appear in just the right places, one of his stylistic gifts), he seldom makes these gaffes, and his writing is almost always pure art. He does not write like an angel: he writes like a sharp-eyed, been-there done-that, hard-nosed, soft-hearted reporter with a mission to write the truth and a clear sense of the poignant. While his view is deeply and appropriately cynical, he has a superb sense of humor and command of language, and underneath it all, an unmistakable sweet soul.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do not let this one get by you. BUY IT!, March 15, 2008

By 

G. Crymes (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire (Paperback)

This book is a masterful creation of reality, snark, wit and intellect. Matt shines the light of truth on just how far gone our government is. You can find him on the show Real Time With Bill Maher often. That is how I found out about him and his book. It's so refreshing and disheartening to read this book. You never get the real story from TV news on just how incredibly broken every part of Washington DC is. This is probably one of the best books I have read in a while.