BOOK INFORMATION Â
Title: Stickin’: The Case for Loyalty
Author: James Carville
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Price: $16.95
Rating: 6
Original by ADAM BROWN/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation by MONICA
KWONG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
By Howard Ho
Daily Bruin Contributor
Loyalty has received a bad wrap lately.
Novels such as “The Three Musketeers,” romanticized
loyalty in the past, but today it blends in with its despised
cousin, conformity. While love, patience and kindness are still
revered, loyalty sounds like an archaic term of a chivalry that has
become obsolete.
In his new book, “Stickin’: The Case for
Loyalty,” James Carville speaks about modern-day loyalty,
especially his own loyalty to Bill Clinton for which he is often
criticized. Carville, who led Clinton’s presidential campaign
to victory in 1992, is known for his fast-talking, confrontational
style ““ a Democratic Rush Limbaugh if you will.
He promises, in his book, to provide his readers with “a
recipe or two, a few anecdotes and not a lot of high falutin
philosophizing.”
Even though he delivers such promised goods, it doesn’t
amount to a cohesive study of a largely unstudied virtue.
As the author of three bestselling books, Carville begins
“Stickin'” where the others left off, namely in
defense of the Democratic Party and Clinton.
Carville’s attacks on Republicans, such as Newt Gingrich
and New York mayor Rudy Guiliani, are spirited and show a genuine
flair for painting characters. Meanwhile, his devotion to his
party, his president and his family are treated with equal
attention and sincerity.
Many of his anecdotes come from personal experiences. He writes
of how he was an unemployed 41 year old, how his clothes were
drenched in a mudpuddle and how the two campaigns he previously
worked for lost.
His life was in shambles until he joined Clinton’s
presidential campaign. He later was assigned by Clinton himself to
head the campaign to victory, achieving national attention in the
documentary “The War Room.”
He consistently cites Clinton’s positive role in his life
as why he didn’t “abandon a guy over sex.”
Carville’s sense of loyalty originated from his family. He
was the oldest of eight and often had to cover for his siblings to
avoid his mother’s wrath, who he affectionately calls
“Miss Nippy.”
The Carville family, which lives aptly in Carville, Louisiana,
is pictured on the back of the dust jacket. For the record, they
number an impressive 38 (40 if you count their two pet dogs).
Of all his siblings, Carville explains, he is the only one to
move away from Louisiana. The rest of his siblings still live near
where they grew up, and keep in constant contact out of, you
guessed it, loyalty to each other.
Outside of family and politics, Carville attempts more ambitious
forays into loyalty as a philosophical concept. He cites famous
authors, such as Satre, Machiavelli and Josiah Royce, who saw
loyalty as the core of morality and, incidentally, whose moniker
dons Royce Hall. While Carville is obviously well-read, he makes
sure his own musings never alienate the lowest common
denominator.
Of Royce’s philosophical tone, Carville writes,
“This book was probably not a best-seller. I guess it could
use some recipes and nowhere does Royce mention seventh-grade
recess.”
There is a certain irony to this statement as he tries to make
difficult works accessible, thus not really detracting from them
but actually encouraging their perusal.
Ultimately, Carville adds nothing new to the subject except to
describe where his own personal loyalties lie. His section on
sports is mostly secondary knowledge paraphrased from books and
lacks the enthusiasm and vigor that mark his personal stories.
His recipes for a “Louisiana Loyalty Lunch,” while
being cute (and a staple of his other books), obviously have
nothing to do with the subject of loyalty. Carville seems to have
written the book out of demand, a free-ticket from publisher Simon
and Schuster to say whatever he wants on anything he wants. Indeed,
chapters even read like a Carvillean monologue.
By the conclusion, Carville is more like the teacher who talked
about himself than the teacher who actually taught.
“Stickin'” is another book in the wave of new
titles that attract readers through celebrity authors.
For those who want to know more about Carville, look no further.
For everyone else, the book can be summarized in Carville’s
Last Rule of Loyalty: “Stick with your friends. And stick it
to your enemies.”
Carville will be speaking at Royce Hall Oct. 15. at 7 p.m. For
information call (310) 825-2101.