Book-A-Day #2 (July 18): A Heckuva Job by Calvin Trillin

A long, essay-like post about Calvin Trillin has been gestating in the depths of my brain for several months now, and may yet emerge -- but this won't be it.

A Heckuva Job is subtitled "More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme," making this a sequel to 2004's Obliviously On He Sails. As a professional editor of SF and Fantasy, I am of course one of the world's top experts on sequels.

As usual with sequels, this continues very obviously in the vein of the original book -- both are collections of topical poetry (originally appearing mostly in The Nation), and both are mostly concerned with making fun of the foibles of the Bush administration. Unfortunately for me as a Republican (but fortunately for me as a reader), the Bushies have a lot of make fun of. This collection covers the 2004 election, more or less, and other events like Hurricane Katrina, but it's usually more general than that. Trillin's lines are mostly doggerel, but then that's exactly what this kind of poetry calls for, and his rhymes and near-rhymes are clever (which is the main point).

There is obviously a certain amount of partisan politics here, but I find Trillin is mostly picking on Bush and his cohorts for good reasons -- and doing it humorously -- so I didn't find myself wanting to rebut each poem in turn. (Although I do find myself sharing Trillin's longing for the much saner and mature administration of George H.W. Bush.)

These days, most people who call themselves Republicans are so quick-tempered and ready to find offense that I'd hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who doesn't already loathe the current US president. But Trillin is a good light poet, and this is a pleasant time-waster for those who can stand to hear bad things said about the guy.