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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYT book reviewer retracts good review of Jeff Flake's 2017 book,
Conscience of a Conservative, stating that Jeff Flake couldn't even convince Jeff Flake to do the right thing.I Take Back My Praise of Jeff Flakes Book
Hes a class act with a faint heart.
By Jennifer Senior
At some point or another, all book critics agonize over whether theyve taken the wrong measure of a book. Theyve overpraised; theyve underpraised; theyve dwelled too long on imperfections that hardly deserved the molecular scrutiny. Theyve done a bum job explaining why a book sang or and this is the worst theyve done a bum job explaining why a book stank, robbing the authors of the intelligent criticism they were owed while being shown the way to the abattoir.
This happens more than youd think. I would know. For just over two years, I was a daily book critic for this paper. I second-guessed myself more than Id care to admit. But there are almost no reviews Id take back.
Now, however, Im seriously reconsidering my mostly kind review of Conscience of a Conservative by Senator Jeff Flake, the Republican from Arizona, whose successor, Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat, was finally announced last night.
snip...........
When his book came out last year, I saluted Flake for doing something politically contraindicated and Rubicon-crossing, establishing himself as the first Republican senator to call President Trump the domestic and international menace that he is. I applauded him for describing the presidents tweets as all noise and no signal and for daring to charge his administration with Orwellian doublespeak, dividing us along fissures of truth and falsity and keeping us in a kind of low-level dread.
I said that Flakes book had rhetorical power. But looking back on it, it didnt. Jeff Flakes book couldnt even convince Jeff Flake. As of this writing, he has voted with Trump 84 percent of the time.
snip...........
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NYT book reviewer retracts good review of Jeff Flake's 2017 book, (Original Post)
catbyte
Nov 2018
OP
Sneederbunk
(14,207 posts)1. Not by his words but by his deeds.
Cha
(295,903 posts)2. "Jeff Flake's book couldn't even convince Jeff Flake"
One good thing he did was Retire!
Congrats to Kyrsten Sinema!
oasis
(49,151 posts)3. F L A K E!
AlexSFCA
(6,137 posts)4. no one will ever remember him
RainCaster
(10,679 posts)5. Remember who?