In Search of Reagan's Brain

by G.B. Trudeau

Book Overview

Satirizes the television coverage of Afghanistan and the 1980 presidential election, the American obsession with suntans, the Billy Carter affair, and the trial of the Gang of Four This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0030597889
• ISBN13: 9780030597886
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: Holt McDougal
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Forget Reagan's brain, Mike meets Joanie Jr. in this one

The excerpt from the "Wall Street Journal" editorial that appears on the back cover of the "Doonesbury" collection "In Search of Reagan's Brain" decries the fact that several newspapers bounced Garry Trudeau's strip from the comics page to the news or editorial page because of the "fantasized and vicious" TV-program trip through Ronald Reagan's brain. The irony, according to the editorial, was that it was not clear who was being satirized: Reagan, his critics, television news, or all of the above. Well, here is your chance to make up your own mind as you look at this collection of daily "Doonesbury" strips from 1980-81. Actually, Roland Hedley's journey through Reagan's brain only lasted a week and the idea that he was "only able to see backwards through a rose-colored mist" was not exactly news. More time in this volume is spent on Zonker competing at the Gerald R. Ford Summer Biathlon (his 239 score on the golf course hurt him but he did win the Jack Ford Medal for Best Tan) and Honey's return to China in time for the trial of the Gang of Four to be the government's star witness against Madame Mao (having her pottery class cancelled was Honey's key that the Cultural Revolution had started). Both of those bits go on for a couple of weeks are better than the Reagan's brain strips, although arguably not as important. Trudeau sort of wasted this book's title on this particular collection because there were more visits to that particular brain once its owner was in the White House.The other major thread in this collection is that Joanie Jr. finally leaves Zeke and hooks up with our man Mike Doonesbury. Even though we know how that one is going to end up it is still nice to see Mike happy for a while, even if he has a hard time believing it). Roland Hedley also makes it to Afghanistan, Billy Carter testifies before Congress, and Mark Slaymaker interviews Dr. Dan Asher on the whole mellow lifestyle. Rick Redfern goes off to cover the Convention and gets to go to George Will's party to introduce the Reagans to a few shakers and movers. Of course, with the former President victimized by Alzheimer's disease there is an additional level of irony to this particular collection, but Trudeau's target was more what Reagan thought than anything truly physiological.