Customer Reviews

Stickin': The Case for Loyalty

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is James Carville's best book so far. The folksy recollections cut to the bone of truth and provide a refreshing candor like no other. I love James' honesty and loyalty to President Clinton. Also, he points out the hypocrisy and disgusting fakeness of people such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and William Bennett. His reflections on his Catholic faith are brutally honest and candid. James is the curmudgeon's curmudgeon, with humor like a modern Mark Twain. I love him!

I did buy the book, expecting more attacks on the Right Wing who tried to overturn the results of the 1996 Election (oh, by the way...Scoreboard, fellas), but I took more away from the book than that. This book has actually touched me, especially Mr. Carville's revelations about how he got his start, and what a rough start it was.

The book is about the concept of loyalty, how hard it is, how trying it can be. Of course, most of Mr. Carville's experiences are going to come out of the Clinton Debacle, but he goes through bits and pieces of his life, and I felt I learned something from it.

Now, I can't recommend it fully to Republicans, but even I would tell them if they could get past the Clinton part, there is something worthwhile here. Good read.

Stickin': The Case for Loyalty is well worth reading for any of the James Carville fans out there. I am a Republican but I enjoy the passion and loyalty that Mr. Carville displays in his books and TV interviews. I am a huge fan of his other books which I strongly suggest to anyone. However Stickin' left a bad taste in my mouth. For one it really gives no new reasons for why Carville "stuck" with President Clinton. We all know the story. Two, it rarely invokes the sense of humor that we expect and enjoy. Read We're Right They're Wrong, ...And the Horse He Came in One, and All's Fair first. If you're hooked try this one.

Like in all his other books James Carville pulls no punches.He tells it like it is in his book "Stickin" and this little fact always has and always will get the extreme right-wing Republicans bent out of shape.The difference between Carville's book and all those other Clinton books by extremist the likes of Barbara Olson and the Ann Coulter's of the world is that James Carville provides facts not allegations and innuendoes. This is a must read for those who want facts and also for those who cherish loyalty something lacking from those who occupy the right side of the aisle.

When I found out that James Carville had written another book, I was ESTATIC! I absolutely adore his style of writing and means of expressing his thoughts. He writes just the way he speaks, and it cracks me up everytime - because I can totally envision him saying all the things he is writing. While there are nincompoops who think that this book is boring, I beg to differ. I find it to be extremely informative, all the while entertaining to read. I was impressed with the examples Carville used throughout his book to demonstrate the concept of loyalty - from PeeWee Reese to Adolf Hitler. A person with even half a brain could not possibly not like this book - it is great! I have all four of Carville's books, and anxiously look forward to his next one!

A disclaimer is in order: I am a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat and a Carville fan. That being said, there are lessons to be learned in this book for anyone. Regardless of whether you, like me, think the Clinton impeachment was a sham, there is something to be learned from Carville in that episode. He would have been the toast of Washington if he came out and trashed the President. He did the exact opposite and showed what true loyalty is.

In Stickin', the always colorful and insightful political strategist James Carville, who has been accused of being loyal, examines this much - maligned and misunderstood political good. Along the way, he looks at loyalty in the family and among friends, in theory and in practice. He praises some loyal people and skewers some deserving backstabbers.

Carville's book, though delving mainly in his politically consumed world, is filled with interesting insights into mankind and the human bonds that have brought us through the last 3000 years. While he takes his shots at the GOP, he also talks about family, war and reasons we " Do or don't do unto others". While an admited Democrat, I believe we can all learn a lesson or two from this reading, for loyalty knows no party.

In STICKIN, James Carville sounds conflicted. I think that is why he rambles a bit, rambles the way people sometimes do late at night, maybe after a few beers, when they are trying to deal with some painful choices they have made and navigate around convolutions. The rambling is honest. I admire it. Loyalty is a rambling, damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-do-not issue. Questions over his loyalty to Bill Clinton led Carville to explore his feelings and experiences with loyalty, resulting in this book. Carville writes with a down-to-earth bluntness, using the pronouns THEY and YOU in their most colloquial form; his prose has an urban blue-collar sound that belies his roots in a Louisiana community named for his ancestors. He candidly shares his pain and loyalty conflicts about people and institutions, ranging from Clinton, to the Roman Catholic Church, to a racist but loving grandmother...while sharing his own far-from-Eagle-Scoutish history (even letting a sibling weigh in). Self-righteous he is not. He gleefully skewers the self-righteousness of some political foes (Gingrich, Bennett). Actually, he skewers Republicans in a global way, but pays loyal tribute to his Republican wife. Personally, I agree with Carville that the sex life of President Clinton is far less deserving of outrage than are some sell-outs Clinton made legislatively. Carville has some thoughtful things to say about McCarthyism, the brother of the Unabomber, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese and Robert E. Lee. I do not buy everything Carville says about loyalty (for example, his praise of one judge for having frankly admitted showing favoritism on the bench to a friend). I was disappointed that his chapter about loyalty in business turned out to be about choices of restaurants and airlines instead of the loyalty issues most of us grapple with in the work world. (Choosing between sticking by the company you work for versus sticking by consumers, clients or the public; choosing between the boss and a friend; etc.) But I am heartened by this book and other books by Carville. He is honest. He is passionate. He does well in sticking it to the right-wing claim for a monopoly on virtue.

This is the first book that I have read of James Carville and it was absolutely facinating. Even though he is know for his hard lined political rhetoric, this book explained to me the meaning of Loyality which, in my generation, is apparently not taught in schools anymore. I came away with a great sense of feeling, I need to do more, especially with my everyday relationships. I am eagerly awaiting Mr. Carville's next book.