| If I Were King |
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Essays on Politics and American Life Paul Willcott is a garden-variety liberal with traditional American values. He refuses to cede patriotism to the radical Right. These love letters to America cover a lot of ground. Willcott muses on his beloved grandmother's faith in the country even during the turmoil of the Vietnam War. He remembers the good people of Baghdad he knew as a young professor long before the Bushes declared wars on them. He celebrates the sacrifices of D Day in a visit to Omaha Beach on the eve of the "contract with America" election. He drafts President Bush to help him apply "moral clarity" to eliminating capital punishment, starting in Texas. In addition to political topics, Willcott explores the problems of uninvited use of given names, noise intrusion, excessive use of the F word, and recreational use of drugs. And, he evokes some all-but-disappeared features of American life, such as passenger trains, bridge night, and pocketknives. These short essays, most of which have been broadcast on public radio, are variously stirring, uplifting, angry, funny, and nostalgic. This is a book for the bed table, one to be read and reread. "We are lucky that we have writers like Paul Willcott, who can recapture our real American dreams for us, and give them back to us varnished anew and retold in his eloquent stories." — James Moore, co-author of Bush's Brain and The Architect
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