Deja Reviews: Florence King All Over Again: Selections from National Review and the American Spectator 1990 to 2001

by Florence King

Book Overview

Great writing is timeless, and so it is with Deja Reviews. Fifteen years later, five years, no matter how "old" her review, no matter how dated the topic of an essay, readers of this hearty collection will find that Miss Florence King's sharp, crafted prose still dazzles, sizzles, and edures, which is why she finds herself in the exclusive company of great American writers and humorists, such as Dorothy Parker, H. L. Mencken, and Westbrook...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933859164
• ISBN13: 9781933859163
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
• Length: 345 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

She who can do no wrong

I fell in love with Miss King's writings years ago when I read "Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady," her memoir of growing up in Washington, DC with somewhat(!) eccentric parents, grandmother, and assorted friends and neighbors. Finding "Deja Reviews" and rereading her memoir brought me a long weekend of totally pleasurable reading. Her reviews make me want to read almost everything she read - so many books, so little time... She is funny, her observations are trenchant, and she does not suffer fools gladly. What I want to know is where is she now? I sorely miss her.

Witty but Solid

One of the oddest fallouts fro the past eight years under Bush is finding the campfire that attracts the learned and wise is of mixed ideology. Where once national debates were between best and the brightest of liberals and conservatives, debates have been replaced by the shimmering that passes for combat on American Idol and the winner is the one who best bolsters an audiences' self-esteem, leaving those who once led the nation to higher levels of greatness huddled alone by a relatively small light in the dark. Miss Florence King is a conservative voice of the most conservative kind and after enjoying her arch and historically solid opinion, deeply rooted in culture and criticism, this liberal knows that our country will not be healed until the likes of her again form the opposition.

Thank you, Miss King!

I've long described Florence King as my favorite living writer (my favorite writer, period, is Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, who -- probably not coincidentally -- also wrote for "National Review" for many years). Yet I have avoided reviewing her books here, not only for fear of not doing them justice, but also because so much of how I try to review books has come from reading Florence King's own reviews. At what point is the pupil ready to grade the master? Reviews are an art at which Miss King excels, which is why I was so happy to discover an advertisement for "Deja Reviews" a few months ago. This volume is a wonderful companion to "STET, Damnit!," the collection of her "Misanthrope's Corner" columns NR published a couple of years ago. "Deja Reviews" assembles about five-dozen pieces from NR and "The American Spectator." Most of them are reviews, but there are also a number of non-review essays including some NR pieces that weren't in the "Misanthrope's Corner." Miss King is sharp of eye, wit, and pen. She famously has no patience with idiocy, and best of all possesses a wonderful facility with the language. I was about to call it a "gift," but I imagine she might object, rightly, to that word: she has worked hard over many years to hone her skills. It's not a "gift," but the product of time, energy, and mental commitment. I remember her writing once in the "Misanthrope's Corner" that she turned down invitations to go on television to discuss one or another of her columns. "If I had anything more to say, I'd have put it in the piece." I so admire Miss King not only for what she writes, but also for the effort she puts into her writing. Her effort and skill make for a great reading experience. You don't have to be familiar with the books she's reviewing to enjoy what she's written about them. These essays are up to her usual high standards for style, humor, and dead-eye insight. As with her earlier collection, there's no index in this book, but that just means I'll once again be filling the flyleaves with my own notations. I imagine I'll learn a lot more about the art of book reviewing, and have a wonderful, entertaining time doing it.

The American Writer Speaks Again

I discovered Florence King while taking a history class at her undergrad Alma Mater - American University in Washington D.C. - where one of her books, Southern Ladies and Gentleman was used as a primer of sorts for class covering the South since Reconstruction. I became a real fan of her writing and writing style, which is possibly the best in American publishing not only of our time, but of all time. While her only fiction book was a let down, King excels as an essayist, critic and commentator of American life, politics and social comment. Her writing style is something that every person who takes pen to paper believes (mistakenly) that they are using - its concise wording gets to the point and almost jabs you in the eye with its simplicity and ability to convey her thoughts while changing your mind. Think of King as the ultimate guest at your dinner party of dreams, polite, but ready to snip any loose threads of conversation off lest they dangle in the air and cloud her view. While I am loath to bring this name up, I will say that I believe Ann Coulter probably thinks that she is a writer on par with Ms. King. She is not. I do bring her name up for one reason: Coulter represents the opposite end of the spectrum on which King "write-fully" (bad pun intended) sits, making King the Grand Dame of true Conservative commentary and writing. In reading King, park your political beliefs at the door and luxuriate in her keen eye for word usage, grammar and thought. If you are so foolish as to approach her writing with any preconceived notions as to your own beliefs, she will skewer you just as the dim wit that you you know you are not. King is not the type of person to suffer fools wisely. If our national culture were really based upon the high lofty ideals that we think that it is, King would be a regular on Sunday morning political shows, putting their hosts in their place. But alas, America and Americans are a vapid lot, and thus we get what we deserve: Ann Coulter distracting us from her unfounded and outrageous opinions by wearing a little black dress like a hooker on her way home from a Saturday night job. But we have King in print. While she doesn't enjoy the book sales that Coulter does, Kings works will bear the test of time and one day she will receive the type of honors due her as a real American treasure that she is.

Timeless, priceless, immortal

These are reviews you turn to over and over again, always with pleasure, always with astonishment. With forever the question: Just how did she turn that phrase that way and capture both the essence of the book and its aims and failures?" In a better world, Stephen King would be forgotten and Ph.D.'s in literature would be written on Florence King's oeuvre, for her erudition is astonishing, and her work cries out for annotated editions. These collected reviews are no exception, for she tackles everything from history to feminism to biography (her review of Strom Thurmond's life is one of the finest sustained passages of prose in English belles letters). All extremely well written, all as funny as hell. One peeks at her soul for a reincarnation of Rabelais and Voltaire, for she is as burlesque as the former, and as poignant as the latter. To be reviewed by Florence King is to cower in fear of a withering aside that will haunt you to the grave. I am sure those who have suffered here have even the typeface of more than a few of these sentences burned into their memory. In summary, this is a work of timeless scholarship and an exemplar of American prose that should stand as a ready textbook for the art of the review. A joy, a revelation, a hearty laugh, a stimulated intellect, a new fact, a valued friend, a companion voice, a hope for the future, and a pleasure of spirit are all available to those who read Florence King. Get it today.