Spinning Dixie

by Eric Dezenhall

When a gorgeous woman appears at the gates of the White House bearing a mysterious letter, disgraced Presidential Press Secretary and professional spinmeister Jonah Eastman knows that his past has... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031234063X
• ISBN13: 9780312340636
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 323 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Delightful fun read

What happens when the past knocks on the door of an irreverent and disgraced Presidential Press Secretary? You get Spinning Dixie. Jonah Eastman resigns from the job he loves, but before he even gets a chance to reflect on how he committed career suicide, a beautiful stranger delivers an envelope containing a shadowy message from his former lover, Claudine Polk. Claudine is in the fight of her life over her ancestral home, Rattle & Snap, and desperately needs his help. Jonah's past has caught up with him, unavoidably forcing him to recount how his family's ties to the Mafia brought him and Claudine together--the most confusing and scintillating woman of his life. Spinning Dixie is a witty and delightful book that portrays colorful Mafioso characters mixing it up with families of Tennessee whose histories date back to the civil war. This odd combination makes for an entertaining story that revealed Eric Dezenhall's ability to combine insight with clever humor. As Jonah reminisces about his past, the author beautifully describes a young man's bewilderment about love and women as he reflects sage perspective on why history did not unite Jonah and Claudine. Since reading this book, I have been recommending it to friends who are looking for a good laugh. I am looking forward to reading more books written by Eric Dezenhall. The author tells us that he started this book in the 1980 when he was 18. All these years later, he finished it--and aren't we lucky. FYI: Rattle & Snap is a real plantation in Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee and it is listed in the National Registry of Historical Places. It was at one time owned by the Polk family in 1800, but not the Polk's he references (his characters are purely fictional). Armchair Interviews says: Need a good laugh? Read Spinning Dixie.

slick, slicker, slickest

Jonah Eastman has the power of a fictional wizard in his position as Presidential Press Secretary as well as being the Ivy League educated grandson of a Jewish mob boss. Career making and breaking headlines appear and disappear with one phone call from the middle aged spinmeister, the general public chases stories that Jonah creates to minimize the shortcomings of others he represents. In Spinning Dixie, Jonah's unresolved adolescent feelings for Claudine Polk, a beauty from a prominent Southern family, become the motivator for the spin job of his life at Claudine's request. Jonah manages to turn the best of his slick Jewish and Italian South Jersey upbringing and White House connected résumé into a witty, powerful tool to help the Polk's keep control of their historic plantation. The most impressive quality about Jonah Eastman whose zany approach towards "business" is his respect and humility for the quiet people wiser than he is and his ability to maintain composure and stability for his family unit. Dezenhall takes us for a ride of which we often don't want to get off.

zany way out domestic crisis thriller

In 2005 the Global War on Terrorism comes home when a suicide bomber commits kamikaze at a Philadelphia Phillies home game. This attack on American soil places President James Lee Truitt on the defensive, but his relatively new Press Secretary Jonah Eastman provides dark Jersey TURNPIKE FLAMEOUT humor that enrages everyone especially Philly fanatics. Jonah is fired for his insensitivity towards the president and his party's needs. Before Jonah can head north from DC, his high school sweetheart (at least for one glorious summer of love), Claudine Polk arrives at his former office to ask him to help save her family's Rattle & Snap Tennessee plantation. Jonah, thinking he can relive his greatest moments in Atlantic City, agrees though he suspects his beautiful southern belle has not come to town seeking circumcised kosher hot dog. Still hoping to get lucky, he begins an out of control Godzilla spin campaign that brings into his game the president, political action committee, Civil War re-enactors, the military, and the mob to name a few, all caught in his web. A second civil war seems imminent as Operation Dixie Knish causes Truitt to approve countermeasure Operation Enough Already. As always Jonah spins out of control leading to a zany way out domestic crisis thriller that could only be written by Eric Dezenhall. The insane story line is action-packed as it rotates between 2005 and 1980 (so Jonah was too young for the original summer of love). The cast is purposely stereotyped as war veterans, mobsters, Tennessee Volunteers from the U of T and some Vanderbilt intellects, and an assortment of politicians, all caught in the spinmiester's web. Though some of the sub-plotting never bridges back to Jonah's mission to repeat his teen conquest as a forty something male, fans of the series will enjoy his SPINNING DIXIE out of control. Harriet Klausner