Al Franken, Giant of the Senate
Ratings27
Average rating4.4
From Senator Al Franken - #1 bestselling author and beloved SNL alum -- comes the story of an award-winning comedian who decided to run for office and then discovered why award-winning comedians tend not to do that. "Flips the classic born-in-a-shack rise to political office tale on its head. I skipped meals to read this book - also unusual - because every page was funny. It made me deliriously happy." -- Louise Erdrich, The New York Times This is a book about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history and an unprecedented eight-month recount saga, which is pretty funny in retrospect. It's a book about what happens when the nation's foremost progressive satirist gets a chance to serve in the United States Senate and, defying the low expectations of the pundit class, actually turns out to be good at it. It's a book about our deeply polarized, frequently depressing, occasionally inspiring political culture, written from inside the belly of the beast. In this candid personal memoir, the honorable gentleman from Minnesota takes his army of loyal fans along with him from Saturday Night Live to the campaign trail, inside the halls of Congress, and behind the scenes of some of the most dramatic and/or hilarious moments of his new career in politics. Has Al Franken become a true Giant of the Senate? Franken asks readers to decide for themselves.
Tags
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
He's my senator.....and I'm happy to see that we are getting to see a little more of the real Al Franken, versus the quiet senator we had for his first term. The whole Ted Cruz chapter is worth the price of the book. Recommended - get the audiobook - he reads it and it goes off book a few times.
Entertaining insights into Franken's personal history and an honest discussion of the current state of the Senate.
I'm torn. I really like Al Franken. I loved [b:Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right 23577 Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right Al Franken https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1438778188s/23577.jpg 344426]. It's obvious he really cares about the people of Minnesota, and is passionate in his belief that he can make a difference as a senator. He is really good at taking complicated issues and explaining them in a way that makes sense. Also, he's funny, even if he can't be SNL-funny very often anymore because his words are so easily twisted.The problem is that I just didn't enjoy myself very much, even though the book was good. Hearing about the inner workings of the Senate and all the bureaucracy and all the fundraising necessary to become an elected official — while interesting — made me feel so depressed. Franken says near the end of the book that it's important to keep faith, that things will probably be bad for a while, but that people showing up and doing the work to hold our elected officials accountable — and the people of our country setting aside differences and working together — will ultimately prove to be the thing that makes America, and our government, great. The problem is, I am having problems showing up and doing the work; like, at one point a few weeks ago (around the time I put down [b:Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman 33257571 Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman Anne Helen Petersen https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1491126580s/33257571.jpg 53978105]), I wondered if it was possible to have feminism fatigue, in that reading things I would normally appreciate — feminist texts, articles about the inner workings of the political process, heck, anything news-adjacent — has just made me feel exhausted. I've basically removed myself from the conversation, because it's just too hard to pull myself out of the quagmire that says things will never be better than they are at this moment. And that sucks! Because I really DON'T believe that, deep down. I'm just too tired emotionally to make myself get up and pitch in. It's been 10 months. So I'm part of the problem.None of this should reflect poorly on the book. The content really was very good. I still really like Al Franken. He managed to take a bunch of people that are in the news a lot lately for doing really crappy things and make them seem like likable people that one could get along with if one had to work with them. The chapter about Ted Cruz being awful, regardless of my previous sentence, was perfection.So I hope you read other reviews of this book instead of mine and make up your mind to read this book or not based on someone else's opinion.
