Smells Like Dead Elephants

Smells Like Dead Elephants is a brilliant collection from Matt Taibbi, "a political reporter with the gonzo spirit that made Hunter S. Thompson and P. J. O'Rourke so much fun" (The Washington Post). Bringing together Taibbi's most incisive and hilarious work from his "Road Work" column in Rolling Stone, Smells Like Dead Elephants shines an unflinching spotlight on the corruption, dishonesty, and sheer laziness of our leaders. Taibbi has plenty to say about George W. Bush, Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, and all the rest, but he doesn't just hit inside the Beltway. He gets involved in the action, infiltrating Senator Conrad Burns's birthday party under disguise as a lobbyist for a fictional oil firm that wants to drill in the Grand Canyon. He floats into apocalyptic post-Katrina New Orleans in a dinghy with Sean Penn. He goes to Iraq as an embedded reporter, where he witnesses the mind-boggling dysfunction of our occupation and spends three nights in Abu Ghraib prison. And he reports from two of the most bizarre and telling trials in recent memory: California v. Michael Jackson and the evolution-vs.-intelligent-design trial in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Equally funny and shocking, this is excellent work from one of our most entertaining writers.

"A political reporter with the gonzo spirit that made Hunter S. Thompson and P.J. O'Rourke so much fun...Taibbi also exhibits a fairly sophisticated knowledge of the inner workings of Congress.", "Certainly the funniest...look at the [2004 presidential] campaign.", "Extremely funny and breathtaking in his ferocity.", "Matt Taibbi is one of the few journalists I read because I want to, not because I have to. His detached contempt is pitch perfect. He'll piss you off and make you laugh out loud, usually within the space of a single paragraph.", "Not so much a campaign diary as it is a compelling, and somewhat chaotic, mix of reporting, anecdote, social commentary, and rant. In each piece, Taibbi's rage and humor bleeds through, making this a vivid and very personal critique of both politics and the mainstream journalists who cover it....It's hard not to be engrossed by the eccentric characters, entertaining scenarios, and rich details that drive [Taibbi's] stories."