THE SKULL OF YORICK: THE EMPTINESS OF AMERICAN THINKING AT A TIME OF GRAVE PERIL

Seventeen essays that are political in aim and literary in method ask whether America can remain a nation of falsehood ("U.S.A.—Land of Liars") without that condition resulting in the death of the republic. "The 'Debate' Over 9/11" asks this question, as does "The Premeditated Murder of the United States of America." Readers will find it asked in "Howard Zinn and the Tea Cozy," "Is Dwight Garner a Dissembler, Deceiver, and Malefactor to His Nation?", and in "Our Enemies the Left Gatekeepers" parts 1, 2, and 3. They'll find it again in pieces like "Amy Goodman: A Mind Prostituted," "The Pernicious Hypocrisy of Frank Rich of the New York Times" parts 1 and 2, "Poisoned Nation, Poisoned Truth," and in the ambitious final piece ("Can the Literary Life Exist in a Post-1984 Nation?"), which digs down to the very foundations of fraud and emptiness in writers like Frank Rich, Dwight Garner, Rebecca Solnit, Don Delillo, and Thomas L. Friedman.