American Rhapsody reviewed

What the hell was I thinking when I decided to buy a used book about the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal written by Joe Eszterhas, the man who written the horrible Basic Instinct and the even worse Flashdance.  Granted, there are quite a few of his movies that I haven't seen but I don't have much hope for them being good with the exception of FIST and possibly Jagged Edge.  But for the original question, it was 75 cents and I was somewhat curious on what Eszterhas would write about the scandal even though I should have known better.  Anyways, was my curiosity met or rewarded, let's find out as we read into American Rhapsody.

So obviously this talks about the whole scandal between then President Bill Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky.  It goes into what happened during those days and their back stories.  We also get back stories on every single player in this scandal from Linda Tripp to Larry Flynt and everyone in between.  There's also a few times that Eszterhas does have an Author Filibuster on Nixon and Hollywood.  But there are a few chapters where he goes off the rails and makes some things up, but I'll get into that later since it's the book's gimmick.

There is one thing that went through my mind while I was reading this and it's was that Ezsterhas was really full on himself.  Every so often he would go on his filibuster on how his generation was right and how Nixon was wrong.  Then he would also that his movies were awesome, especially Jagged Edge.  He talks about Jagged Edge a lot like he was this huge turning point for movies when in reality it's pretty much forgotten.  He also has a way of killing the interest a few times when he gives the same amount of back story on everyone.  Granted, some are required and some are somewhat cool but more often than not I was like GET ON WITH IT!

Now for Eszterhas making stuff up, he does give us fair warning and the chapters where does so is bolded making it really easy to differentiate the "facts" and the adaptation of the facts.  It's a very cute gimmick but the problem is that this isn't really utilized enough.  There's only six or seven chapters where this is used but there's a bigger problem with it.  With the exception that these chapters are written in the first person and there are some confessions, there isn't much difference between the two types of chapters.  The facts still come into play to as much extent as the other type of chapters.  All this is is just a failed gimmick.

So for this part-historical lesson, part-adaptation, part-autobiography is all mediocre crap.  Granted, this is the best thing that Eszterhas has written but it's still all that good.  It's still poorly written, his filibusters are annoying and his attempts to adapt a scandal into his own ends are pathetic.  If you want to know more about the whole Clinton/Lewinsky scandal read a book from a real author. 

5/10