Morning Post: Spoiler Alert
Book Review
The Speaker: The North Carolina House of Representatives, by Ann Lassiter (23 pps, GBC bound, Legislative Printing Office, Raleigh, North Carolina)
Though Ms. Lassiter’s $75,000 advance for this book has been the talk of the capital, it is her unconventional prose and keen eye for detail that makes this remarkably easy-to-read history something special.
With a full twenty-three pages of amazing prose (except for the big Who quote on page six) The Speaker is replete with odd choices of capitalization, some noun-verb problems and a few tense shifts here and there. With each leaf, Ms. Lassiter keeps us guessing which sharp corner of the English language she’ll round off next.
Her take on events is stunningly even-handed. Of the “jovial, extremely grateful, compassionate and always young at heart” Speaker Philip Godwin, she writes:
In 1963, Godwin sponsored the Speaker Ban Law. He believed that North Carolinians had the right to determine how state dollars were spent at public universities and also had the responsibility to protect democracy against the threat of Communism.
The ending is sad even as it tries to be hopeful. Here, she stretches out:
That beauty has long been destroyed by politics. Like so many other places where people work, there is coldness, an impersonal lifestyle that has taken over.
Mark K wrote:
Brilliant. I’m rushing out this afternoon to grab my copy. Think they’re in stock at the Internationalist, or will I have to go to Borders? You think there will be a tour? A signing event at the Regulator perhaps?
Posted on 27-Jan-07 at 3:23 pm | Permalink
Gerry wrote:
The sad thing is that in 2004, I wrote my Masters Thesis in Political Science at Carolina as more or less a history of the General Assembly over the previous 33 years. In the Fall of 1971, I started in graduate school, and during the October 1971 special session I lobbied for Common Cause on some election law bills. A book was released that year “The Sometime Giovernments”, a scathing critique of all 50 state legislatures, with chapters tailored for each state, with criticisms and recommendations. I dropped out of the program in 1972 to go to law school, but decided in 2002 to finish my MA program. Since the State would reimburse my tution ($900 or so per course) under the Educational Assistance Policy, I decided writing about the General Assembly was the most useful (having worked there since 1977) When I finished, my 98 page document was a thesis about modernization and reform. I eagerly sent it it to many reporters and editorial writers early in 2005. As far as I can tell, not a word appeared anywhere, not in print, not online, nada. No story there (it was positive news, no scandal), move along. If you want to read it now, it’s at:
http://www.geocities.com/gercohen1/thesis.doc
Posted on 27-Jan-07 at 7:19 pm | Permalink
kmr wrote:
Rightous thesis Gerry. It’s on my reading list.
Thanks for the link.
Posted on 27-Jan-07 at 8:38 pm | Permalink
Gerry wrote:
The one major reform suggested in 1971 but not implemented by 2004 was ethics, that was dealt with in the 2006 ethics reform legislation. I’m going to do a revised version of my piece (probably half the length) later this year and update the stuff to 2007.
Posted on 28-Jan-07 at 12:13 pm | Permalink