The Star Chamber

by John Wilkes

John Wilkes tells the inside story of his experiences working with the Office of Independent Counsel investigating a series of allegations against President James Madison Cannon. Beginning with a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0966864301
• ISBN13: 9780966864304
• Release Date: December 1998
• Publisher: Pepperdine Press
• Length: 499 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A Very Interesting Expose

THE STAR CHAMBER is a very interesting book on several levels. It is most obviously an expose of the workings of the Office of Independent Counsel during the Clinton years. We learn about the horrors of the politics of personal destruction and such related issues as the need to read all newspapers with a large amount of skepticism.John Wilkes is a pseudonym used by Stephen Smith. The author possesses a broad background in politics, academia and the law. As a result, he is able to shower the reader with original insights into a wide variety of people, events and situations.If the reader looks carefully THE STAR CHAMBER can also be read as a love story and partly because of this the book often manages to maintain an optimistic tone.

The Truth is revealed with fiction.

Every American that cares about our Democracy needs to understand what is behind the Independent Counsel's investigation of our President. The Star Chamber helped me put the investigation in the proper perspective. This "Insider's Account", while written as fiction, rings true and places people and events in an understandable, and believable, context.

An insider's bitingly witty view of political scandal

Insider John Wilkes, nom de plume of Whitewater figure Stephen Smith, takes a bitingly witty, albeit incredulous and occasionally bitter, view of political scandal. Set in the state of Alabama, the scandal involves a former governor subsequently elected President and a real estate venture gone wrong. Initially an investigation of presidential culpability by a truly independent council, an opportunistic takeover by a seasoned politico cum prosecutor turns the whole mess into a vengeful bloodbath. Only the blood that gets spilled is that of the innocent. John Wilkes participation as a part of the independent council's legal team puts him in historic civil rights territory, Birmingham, Alabama. The story is laced with Alabama political figures that bring the story to life and aid in the reader's suspension of disbelief. While Wilkes, in the "Forewarning" comments, assures the reader that the book "is pure political parody" and that he "made it all up," my personal experiences in Republican politics in Alabama often paralleled events in the book. Like Miss Eudora and Beth Henley in Mississippi, or Flannery O'Connor in Georgia, John Wilkes AKA Smith knows his southerners and can tell their stories. Like Henley, Wilkes does not tell jokes, but the scenes he depicts range from the patently heart-rending to uproariously funny.Unlike his fellow Southern writers, Wilkes also knows his politicians, having been one himself in his other identity as Stephen Smith. Besides being a duly elected legislator, Smith also served as an appointee of then-Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. Readers, Wilkes' assurances aside, will read fiction strongly resembling what Wilkes often refers to as the fiction of current political news stories.What gives this book extra value is Smith's understanding of the legal processes and the liberal (no pun intended) smattering of legalistic analyses peppered with Latin bon mots. Given the context of today's news, this book is a page-turner that no observer of American politics will want to miss. The denouement blends just the right tone of optimism and pessimism to reflect the reality in today's news.