Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire

by Matt Taibbi

Book Overview

Smells Like Dead Elephants is a brilliant collection from Matt Taibbi, "a political reporter with the gonzo spirit that made Hunter S. Thompson and P. J. O'Rourke so much fun" ( The Washington Post ).... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802170412
• ISBN13: 9780802170415
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Gorgeous tales of unspeakable events

In spite of the off-putting title, this book is a delectable collection of Taibbi's habit-forming Rolling Stone essays on politics in the Bush era. His topics range from Michael Jackson to Lynndie England to (my favorite) Tom DeLay. He fearlessly travels to New Orleans (with Sean Penn, as it happens) to see the Katrina disaster firsthand; he gets embedded with the troops in Iraq, then dis-embeds to go inside Abu Ghraib in the company of a mercenary. He is suitably appreciative and humble in the company of the soldiers (but not the contractors) with whom he is traveling. But the most horrifying story may be the one about Taibbi's time in the company of Bernie Sanders, the independent Congressman from Vermont, as bills he works on in the Republican Congress get snuffed out one by one. Whatever rules used to exist are either ignored or rewritten, all without regard for fairness or decency or even, quite possibly, for legality. It's the most stunning up-close look at a dysfunctional government a reader could stand. Taibbi has been referred to as a "gonzo" journalist, and indeed there is a bit--just enough--of his "self" in the reporting; but he is mainly a deeply insightful observer and chronicler of things unseemly and egregious. While I regretted the very occasional occurrence of a superfluous four-letter word (usually, they appear in just the right places, one of his stylistic gifts), he seldom makes these gaffes, and his writing is almost always pure art. He does not write like an angel: he writes like a sharp-eyed, been-there done-that, hard-nosed, soft-hearted reporter with a mission to write the truth and a clear sense of the poignant. While his view is deeply and appropriately cynical, he has a superb sense of humor and command of language, and underneath it all, an unmistakable sweet soul.

Beyond Words!

Taibbi's "Smells Like Dead Elephants" is mostly too funny to describe - especially describing Michael Jackson's trial, Bernie Sanders' efforts to pass legislation and amendments, and attending (no-longer) Senator Burns' birthday party pretending to be a lobbyist for drilling in the Grand Canyon. Then the more serious moments of Lnnydie England and her trial for Abu Gharaib abuses, and later having the guts to stay there for three days. Definitely a "Must Read."

i love this gonzo-style political humor

allright, i read this whole thing in 2 days. mainly, i couldnt put it down because i didnt want to wait for his next hilarious observation. the new orleans story made me feel like i was there. not a lot of humor there, but probably the best story. it took balls for a hotshot from RS and a millionare actor to drive a boat around the most neglected areas of flooded NO. i hope he got an award for that piece. anyway, here are some things i remember. he travels to the sheehan protest/counter-protest in tx and describes the scene as a "Crossfire" themed amusement park where both sides seem to pathologically "miss the point". his analysis of the lyndie england trial had me on the floor. he described the judge(army colonel) as a blockhead who seemed like the kind of guy who takes his wife on a date to the "elks club" and "yells at his kids at barbeques". the prototype liberal sociologist verbal exchange with this judge was insanely hilarious(when explained by taibbi). the real kicker came when england had her baby(fathered by fellow sadist, graner) and wrapped it up in a flag for a picture. Then, her lawyer presented it to the court as evidence of her patriotism. if i hadnt just served in the army for 5 years, i would have thought he was making this up. the tom delay analysis was alarming, painful(to remember) and funny. thanks matt, for making sense of all this s*** for me. the foreword was dead-on, it said it all. his goal(identical to mine) is trying to understand this facist little AMCON(american conservatism), fox news, W, "famed neocon" movement. like him, i thought there had to be more to it than what i see on television. but no, these folks really believe in bombing the hell out of a place and then rolling in with some tanks and machine guns looking for the victory parade. they really are that dumb. but does anyone say this? no! they are portrayed to us by the news channels as "intellectuals". on top of it all, what these guys all have in common(besides an utter lack of principals) is the inability to admit when they are wrong. you will see this time and time again throughout the book. everything we have heard for almost 8 years now has been wrong and stupid, but no one seems to calling anybody on any of it. WTF!!!!???? thanks again, matt. i wish i could get this guys email address so that i could write him a thank you letter myself.

Do not let this one get by you. BUY IT!

This book is a masterful creation of reality, snark, wit and intellect. Matt shines the light of truth on just how far gone our government is. You can find him on the show Real Time With Bill Maher often. That is how I found out about him and his book. It's so refreshing and disheartening to read this book. You never get the real story from TV news on just how incredibly broken every part of Washington DC is. This is probably one of the best books I have read in a while.