"George W. Bush made me want to be an American." That's the first sentence of the book "Don't Get Too Comfortable" by David Rakoff. In spite of the warning not to judge a book by it's cover, I often do that in making my selections at the local library. The cover tells me something about the tone or style of the book, the call number on the spine tells me whether it is fiction or non-, and the subtitle usually gives a very good synopsis of the book. The subtitle for Rakoff's book is "The indignities of coach class, the torments of low thread count, the never-ending quest for artisanal olive oil, and other first world problems." Not a bad summary.
But for this book it was the first sentence of the first chapter that riveted me. Bush made him want to be an American!?!?
Turns out that is a backhanded compliment for Bush's vision of America which has resulted in imprisonment without trial and deportation without cause simply because the government has deemed a person an "enemy combatant". The war on terror has no easily identified enemy so everyone is suspect and anyone is liable to be caught in the net of "enemy". Rakoff has lived most of his life in America as a Canadian citizen, a legal resident alien. He had been happy with the ambiguities of his life until he realized that Bush wasn't. From this decision he goes on to experience and then describe our pitiful naturalization system.
This is a collection of short magazine-length articles, many of which have already appeared in magazines such as GQ, This American Life, and Harper's Bazaar. They're fun, funny, and mostly light-hearted with some serious undertones. Topics include shopping, Martha Steward, genital origami, Log Cabin Republicans, cosmetic surgery, and the quest for eternal life through cryogenics. Highly enjoyable book.
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