Looking Forward to It: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the American Electoral Process (Paperback)

by Stephen Elliott (Author) "It's been a long, boring summer and it's only July..." (more)
Key Phrases: John Kerry, Howard Dean, New Hampshire (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
The Republican Right is in control, U.S. troops are fighting in a quagmire overseas, the presidential race is on, and recreational drugs are involved. The year, though, is not 1972 but 2004. And our Gonzo correspondent is not Hunter S. Thompson, but novelist Elliott, who appears to be more broke, more disenfranchised, more self-doubting, and probably less talented than his iconic predecessor. With paper-thin credentials from the Believer magazine, Elliott starts his coverage in Iowa in July 2003. From there he follows the Democratic candidates through, mostly, the swing states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, and points beyond, taking his narrative all the way through John Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. This is a book for political junkies, who will have to get through the author's distractions--loneliness, women problems, a troubled childhood. But Elliott gives us a fresh, ground-level read on the candidates, the media coverage, and the election process itself. Admirably, Elliott--as alienated from the process as he might seem--gets what's at stake here when he says simply, "People have a responsibility to pay attention." Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Stephen Elliott is one of the most versatile and gifted young writers we have. His fiction is wrenching, raw, and unsafe. His political writing, on the other hand, is savvy, loose, very funny and -- truly -- full of rare insights. Also: he is quite hairy."
- Dave Eggers

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Picador (September 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312424159
• ISBN-13: 978-0312424152
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,321,578 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Move Over, Joan Didion and Hunter Thompson . . ., October 31, 2004

By	Kyle Minor "reader" (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews

. . . because Stephen Elliott has written our new campaign classic.

Now, I'm not saying this book isn't full of insight into the theatricality of the political process, or the sycophantic relationship between the mainstream press and the two major parties, or the silliness of the sound byte culture. It is. I promise. It's all there.

But what makes this book sing is the digressions, sometimes personal, sometimes fictional, sometimes incomplete, sometimes written in the first, second, or third person, sometimes funny, sometimes quite sad, sometimes involving sadomasochism, sometimes involving nonsexual love affairs with fellow travelers.

The real protagonist of Looking Forward to It is not John Kerry or Howard Dean or George W. Bush. The real character, the real hero, is Stephen Elliott. And thank God for that.

Okay, that's all. I'm not giving anything else away. Buy this book. Buy it, buy it, buy it!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spins the truth on the campaign trail, September 27, 2004

By	Louie Racht "man about town" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Stephen Elliot's book is far and away the funniest and most insightful political punditry from the 2004 election. From the rise and fall of Howard Dean to the Republican convention in New York, Elliot doggedly pursues value in stories most reporters don't even recognize. As he crosses the lower 48 by bus, plane and thumb, we are introduced to some of the wisest, most astute political analysts grassroots America has yet uncovered.
I loved this book for the sound byte it isn't.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of bang for the buck, December 31, 2004

By	J. DAVIDSON (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a huge fan of Stephen Elliott's fiction; HAPPY BABY was one of the best novels of 2004. So I was excited to read this and I wasn't disappointed. It's a superb and hilarious account of Elliott's year on the campaign trail, and you don't have to be a politics junkie (I'm certainly not) to find it absolutely charming as well as remarkably insightful and smart about various aspects of American political culture. It's a classic!