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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Stephen Elliott does not know what to think of American voters, this year's desperate and heated run for presidency, or the legitimacy of the political system. He doesn't know whether to love John Kerry or try to love Howard Dean or try, simply, to get excited about Politics. But what he does know is that most Americans are as confused, taxed and broken-hearted as he is.
Looking Forward To It is the chronicle of one ordinary fellow's skeptical -- and hilarious -- journey through the election process. It is on the campaign trail that he will meet washed-out campaign managers, idealistic publicists, corrupt journalists, world-weary auditorium janitors, recovering drug addicts, and, of course, politicians. His report documents a journey into the center of "the thing", our country, where Americans high and low come together to participate in the most profound gesture of democracy: the election.
