12/04/2024
On the Amazon page where you can rate my book and do reviews of it, one stood out to me. It was very negative, but the writer did hit some points of the book and was so nasty that I lifted the title of his mini-review for the "In Praise Of" page that appears at the beginning of books for my fourth printing.
Leave yours if you've read the book. Thanks.
Old Gordo
1.0 out of 5 stars
If you hate cops, law, and order, you might like this book
I found nothing entertaining or hilarious in this book, but maybe I was taking it too seriously, perhaps not realizing that the author was aiming for satire, if indeed he was.
In some ways this book was depressing, bringing back to life the awful riot of 1967. In other ways it made me angry as Werbe seems to try to justify all aspects of the riot.
Did you know that there were no snipers firing on the firemen trying to put out the blazes in Detroit? Why, all those bullets the firemen thought were being aimed at them came from trigger happy members of the National Guard from blocks away. The Guard fired off all of its ammunition, over 150,000 rounds mostly by shooting at each other unknowingly.
And as for all that looting? Why it was just folks partying and getting revenge for all the sins perpetrated against them by the government, business, capitalists, and law enforcement! And if caught with stuff the good citizens were brutalized by the pigs.
Nothing much was said about all the fires other than that the A&P was a hated store with higher prices than in the suburbs and probably poorer produce. Ah, but when a black owned record store burned Werbe, an apparent jazz music lover, likened that act to the burning of the library in Egypt by the Romans. What a tragedy!!!
The book is loaded with nasty comments about suburban racists, useless politicians, and those cruel pigs with guns. At one point, even border guards are labelled as fascist pigs.
As for heroes, much is written here about Wilhelm Reich, probably one of the nuttiest psychologists ever. He was all in favor of releasing one’s libido as the key to a wonderful life. Look him up. He thinks he cured cancer.
The Vietnam War comes in for much commentary. I can accept that rational opinions exist about the ultimate worth of this military effort, but when the government of my country and its military is accused over and over of wanton, malevolent, unnecessary murder of innocent civilians it sets my teeth on edge. And this book includes such charges spewed from the mouths of its wooden characters.
I can also accept that in the riot the police did some nasty things. The incidents at the Algiers Motel, for one example. However, it seems to me that before we castigate police as brutal thugs and pigs we might stop and wonder about chicken/egg sequences. The police endured more provocation and danger than defenders of the saintly criminals will ever admit.
Lastly, the book is very poorly written. I understand that even the author admits that he is not a good novel writer.
This book sucks! Why did I read it? Why do people gaze at disasters?
