If you’ve ever seen a speech by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, you’ve heard the stories of his poor childhood – sleeping in cars, wearing the same pants for a year, scrubbing the floors at school to pay for his books. Other hardships are apparent just by looking at him, such as a severe lack of multi-vitamins, and being bullied by the kids who were bullied by the real bullies in school.
But now you can read all your favorite stories from the Little Match Boy in his new book: The Courage to Survive.
The work is a follow up to his 2003 book, A Prayer for America, a collection of Dennis’ speeches to labor unions and peace groups, hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as “short on logic,” and by one Amazon customer as unlikely to be “worth the lives of the trees that made the ultimate sacrifice for it.”
But his new book, which will be released in November, isn’t about politics, Kucinich said last week, during an appearance on the Tonight Show. That is, unless you consider a shamelessly naked attempt to gather the sympathy vote in the run-up to the primaries being “about politics.” Instead, said Dennis, the book is just about “what people go through.” [Or, at least, what Dennis went through].
“For a lot of people life can be difficult,” he told Leno and his guest, the Rock. “To come into government as I have with that awareness, it’s really been a great gift.”
Dennis’ book hasn’t even been released, yet it’s already been hailed as a masterpiece by at least one literary giant. On the front jacket, the great American writer Gore Vidal describes the book as “hypothetically mesmerizing,” which the 82-year-old Vidal surely meant that it would be mesmerizing to read, hypothetically, if you were to tear out all the pages and replace them with pages from the magazine Jugs.
So, if you need some kindling, or have a wobbly table leg, go pick up a copy on November 12, for the low, low price of only $25.95! Ten percent of every purchase will go toward Dennis’ “Holy Shit! I’ve Already Spent All My Matching Funds” Fund. -- Jared Klaus
