Never have I been so excited by an upcoming book and then so disappointed with the finished product. But before I get to that sad reveal, let me just say that John Lithgow is my newest favorite human.
When I first heard actor John Lithgow speak on the New York Times Book Review podcast a few weeks ago, it was a revelation. I have always known about him, of course. Here was an actor that has seemingly never stopped working during the past 50 years, almost literally. His first role was in a little-known 1972 film written, by all people Michael Crichton, called "Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues". He was never someone I followed fervently but was always happy to see pop up, improving almost anything he was involved in. Of course my most vivid memory of him was in his Oscar-nominated role as Roberta Muldoon in the screen adaptation of John Irving's "The World According to Garp" but I also have an almost equally strong recollection of him (in his second Oscar-nominated role) as nice guy adulterer Sam Burns in the critically acclaimed "Terms of Endearment." Despite his wide array at playing baddies, its those decent Muldoon and Burns roles that come through in Lithgow's real life persona. Polite and considerate, Lithgow is always thanking interviewers and Internet commenters for their compliments and exhibits such an self-depreciating sense of humor that it's impossible to not like the guy. With a constant patter of lines like "As an illustrator, I'm a very good actor," its impossible not to lean favorably towards the guy. I mean, he just seems so decent and humble.
Lithgow has worked so frequently and been in so many films and plays throughout my life that I can speak forever on his career but it's his book of poems (!) I've actually come here today to discuss. Entitled "Dumpty" and released October 22, 2019, it is this collection of 33 pieces that has me so conflicted and ultimately, disappointed.
Back to that revelatory NY Times podcast. Listening to Lithgow speak to interviewer Pamela Paul, I was immediately struck by what an excellent speaker Lithgow was. His delivery was so clear and articulate. His pauses between phrases and his emphasis on certain words would drive home his meanings forcefully or change sentence nuance entirely. He was a master orator at the highest level and completely in command of his intended message at every moment of the interview. That he made such an impression on me in such a casual podcast was extraordinary to me. "Imagine," I thought, "what this guy could do with Shakespeare on stage!"
The book he was promoting on this podcast was "Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse." Lithgow and Paul both refer to it as a book of poems but honestly, the pieces in here more closely resemble limericks. A limerick is defined as "a humorous rhyming poem... that often contains a bawdy story or joke."
Pedantics aside, the writing in "Dumpty" is brilliant. Smart, clever, funny, so knowledgeable about each subject, Lithgow is spot on at everyone he targets. Betsy DeVos, William Barr, Rudy Giuliani and dozens more are the subjects here with an honesty and a clear-eyed look at our present society that sums up what living through the past few years has been like. Often laugh-out-loud funny but with an underlying anger, bewilderment and clear eyed-intelligence that elevates this volume from the hundreds of Trump joke books that have already released and fallen from the public eye.
Adding to the multitude of riches here are Lithgow's own illustrations; he's added one for almost every limerick here. Not all of them are brilliant but these drawings add yet another layer of "Lithgow-ness" and make this volume an even more personal and endearing effort, adding to the work as a whole, springing entirely from one single man's creativity and mind-space. It all adds up to just about as much great content as can be crammed into a slim 110 pages.
As good as the writing is, though, it's Lithgow's presentation, his delivery, his goddamned showmanship that sticks the landing in all of his online and public readings and had me looking forward to the audiobook of this title beyond all expectation. The audiobook should have been the slam dunk.
I couldn't wait to get my hands on the final released product...
... only to find out that the books publisher, Chronicle Prism felt it necessary to add sound effects to the Lithgow-read audiobook. Not just subtle effects every now and then but clown car, lowest common denominator, full blown "BOING!" effects throughout every single poem. Stupid, immature sound effects interrupt Lithgow's reading at almost every turn. Screams and fart noises are the norm here, interrupting the author's carefully constructed sentence structure and narrative buildup. In this sharp, political satire, you're going to hear trumpets and cash registers, burps and high-pitched chipmunk singing. I've started and stopped the audiobook over and over. I keep trying to convince myself it can't be as bad as I remember, start it up again and then shut it down again almost immediately.
Your mileage may vary. Check out Amazon and see if their site will let you listen to a sample of the reading. If you come to feeling the same as I, there's always the printed and eBook versions.
Update: "Dumpty's" follow up is called "Trumpty Dumpty Wanted A Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age" and is expected to be released October 6th 2020 by Chronicle Prism press, just in time for the all-important upcoming election. Hopefully with less sound effects.
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Links:
That NY Times Book Review podcast with Lithgow here (Oct. 25, 2019)
John Lithgow reads some of his poems in a Stephen Colbert interview here. In this interview, Lithgow reveals a follow up to "Dumpty," another collection of limericks about surviving the Trump years called "Trumpty Dumpty Wanted A Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age" and actually reads the title poem from the new book! He also reads something from the first, "Rabid Rudy."
"Dumpty's" GoodReads page here. Its sequel page here.
John Lithgow interviewed by author Jeffrey Toobin on the "Dumpty" press tour here (Oct. 2019)
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