Until now, Michael Moore has preferred to potshot at corporate America by means of film ("Roger & Me") and television ("TV Nation"). In Downsize This! he resorts to the printed page, and as usual, the results are acerbic and irresistibly amusing. Moore aims his broadsides at such deserving targets as Washington lobbyists, institutional racism, and a rogue's gallery of overcompensated CEOs. He also lets his hair down sufficiently to discuss "My Forbidden Love for Hillary Clinton," and to argue that O.J. Simpson was too stupid, rich, and unenterprising to be guilty. Righteous indignation is seldom this funny.
Moore, whose documentary film Roger & Me and television series TV Nation have a strong cult following, takes on corporations, politicians and Americana in general in a mordant satire that will leave both conservatives and liberals reeling with embarrassment. Moore tears into corporations and labor unions alike. Citing "economic terrorism," he goes after the "Big Welfare Mamas"?the CEOs?detailing their cozy tax deals with federal and local government, which have added to the deficit. He attacks the unions in "Why Are Union Leaders So F#!@ing Stupid," citing how they have collaborated with corporations (while taking huge salaries) to slash jobs from their own memberships. No one is immune; Moore scrutinizes the President, Bob Dole, NAFTA, Cuban refugees and Pat Buchanan. A scathing, funny book packed with facts, it will appeal to those who loved Al Franken's Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. Photos. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The man who brought you Roger & Me takes on the fat cats again.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
If you don't know Michael Moore, you should. The creator of Roger and Me and TV Nation has built his career on giving the raspberry to corporate fat cats, and this book will add to his considerable reputation. He tackles everyone here--Democrats, Republicans, Germany, General Motors--and wrestles them to the ground. About the only one who doesn't get thoroughly dissed is O. J., whom Moore claims is far too rich to bother killing anyone. Among the book's stellar moments: the introduction of his "big welfare mamas" --that is, "tax-cheating, job-exporting, environment-destroying corporations that are already posting record profits" ; his letters to Norway and the Netherlands asking for foreign aid for America's poor; and his poignant support of those countless billions of abandoned sperm, mindlessly disposed of in a convenient Kleenex. Moore's wit is as dry as a martini and as outrageous as, well . . . a hugely profitable company laying off thousands of workers. This is a book that makes you think as hard as you laugh. Ilene Cooper
From Kirkus Reviews
The man behind the popular documentary Roger and Me and the short-lived series TV Nation takes a stab at authorship--and at every conservative sacred cow available. Moore brings a uniformly predictable lefty perspective to a series of topics, including corporate downsizing of workforces, Bill Clinton's weakness in opposing the right wing, Congress's craven subjugation to special interests, NAFTA, white racism, anti-feminist hysteria, homophobia, and the demonization of welfare recipients. As in his film and video work, Moore is at his best when he leads the fuzzy-minded to the logical conclusions of their thought processes, for example, getting an anti-abortion activist to agree that male masturbation is a serious moral issue because life actually begins with the individual sperm. There is a good deal of useful political information spread through the book, including the names and deeds of a number of corporate executives and lobbyists whose power is seldom treated as critically as it should be by journalists. The humor is hit-and-miss, though, and readers who don't seethe along with Moore in his populist rage are likely to find the book as a whole tiresome. There's also a considerable amount of the nastiness that liberals decry among today's conservative polemicists, the low point being a suggestion to Bob Dole that he replace the pen with which he keeps his disabled right hand from closing in on itself with something more appropriate, such as a coathanger to symbolize his views on abortion. Moore might consider, as he passes judgment on the hypocrisy of our time, that a writer who can muse on his frequent exasperation with limousine drivers should refer to the working class as something other than ``we.'' (line drawings; b&w photos; map, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
If the collection of tirades is here to stay as a publishing genre, Mr. Moore's first book is at least an entertaining example. . . . Mr. Moore has a real talent for cutting through the garbage, digging out the important points and serving them up in delightful, outrageous, sometimes irrefutable ways. He is at his absolute best when confronting his enemies head on, asking the questions everyone else would love to put directly to the people in charge. -- The New York Times Book Review, Anita Gates
Michael Moore is a hybrid of two Ralphs--Kramden and Nader--and he is blessed with brilliant comic timing. -- Ginia Bellafante, Time
From the Inside Flap
ebuttal to the "Newtification" of America, and hilarious proof of why Michael Moore is the unofficial champion of the largest political force in the nation--the 60 percent of voters who elect not to vote--Downsize This! gets under the skin of the corporations, politicians, and media moralists who have made life miserable for millions of Americans. Line drawings & photos. Map. NPR sponsorship.
