Well, not reviewed exactly:
Douglas Anthony Cooper (with whom I went to high school) disclaims the word:
[T]his is not a book review—it is an act of drooling voyeurism. Patriots is what anthropologists call a "thick description": a deep, firsthand account of the fascinating primitives who occupy the feral extremes of he Republican party. As a speechwriter for the second president Bush, Frum had a privileged perspective: He was Margaret Meade among the savages, and he has returned with this document. After a long shower, he has detailed their hunting and gathering habits, their costumes and mythology, and—most importantly—their mating rituals.
That caveat stipulated, Cooper observes:
Patriots can be read as a paean to incrementalism: moving forward glacially, inch by inch, never cut off from the past. It favors progress, but is a withering indictment of historical ignorance and extremism. In particular it deplores those two attributes when they merge in a single person, or institution, or political party.
"Vicious" and "elegiac" are not words you generally associate with the same book, but they are in fact a hallmark of comedies written by conservatives…
Click here to read the full review.
