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

This article appears in Sep 26 – Oct 2, 2007.

8 replies on “About a Boy: Dennis Kucinich’s new book”

  1. Wouldn’t reading some or all of this book be a prerequisite for any critical comment on it?

  2. Thanks for this pointless review of a book you’ve none of. Kucinich may “play politics” by telling his sob story, but you’re the real S.O.B. for commenting on it before even seeing its content. I hope you enjoy this comment and return to pulling the wings off flies with an added sense of self-loathing; you dissed someone for no reason at all.

  3. DENNIS KUCINICH”S EGO??? Du-u-u-u-de, have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? You’re the one with the ego problem, and you make yourself feel like a BIG MAN by ruthlessly putting down a man like Dennis.
    What is it about yourself that makes you feel so small?

  4. I love how every time a piece is written about Dennis the Menace whacked-out hippies from the east coast immediately come to his aid in this local Cleveland free weekly. Does the Dennis campaign have a super search engine that seeks out every negative comment made about him so his eager lemmings can quickly be notified and retort? Get back to us when you live in the district that he has run into the ground or the City that he bankrupt when he was mayor. While unemployment soars in the area and violence grows by the day our elf representative is hanging out in Hawaii or Syria in hope of reaching that majical number of 2% support in the primary.
    He has left the job of representing the people of his district to push a radical platform for the likes of New Hampshire hippies and Sean Penn. Don’t worry though, he will have much more time to spend on your causes after the 2008 election because our district is going to send this little elf packing.

  6. Wow, I didn’t know clevescene.com was part of the Fox Noise Network. You haven’t read the book, yet you’re reviewing it? Why is this blog here? None of the points you make should be considered valid. Books are read in advance by real book reviewers, that’s why Gore Vidal was able to comment on it. His review is valid. As far as your comment on the price… that’s how much new books cost. It has nothing to do with Kucinich. Look at all the prices for books written or written for other political candidates and you’ll find that $25.95 is the standard.

  8. I agree with most of the other comments that your review is one from a supercharged ego, probably one of the bullies that we encounter when we are growing up, that is, those of us who do grow up. You obviously have a huge political axe to grind, even though Kucinich has been re-elected many times into the U.S. House. He must be pretty popular to do so. You don’t have to like his politics, but why do you pretend to be a book reviewer when it’s clear you are nothing but a small time hack? Here in Albuquerque, our local alternative free paper would never dream of publishing trash like yours. Try reading more and writing less.
    In case you didn’t realize it, your review pops up in Google searches, and what a waste of bandwidth.

Comments are closed.