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Title: Gordon Liddy Is My Muse: By Tommy "Tip" Paine: A Novel by John Calvin Batchelor ISBN: 0-8050-3790-X Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: October, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Gordon Liddy reviewed.
Comment: Although I found this book very enjoyable, in the end it is little more than a collection of Cold War short stories, well observed but ultimately less than satisfying. The follow up novel, Walking The Cat, featuring a lot of the same characters is far more enjoyable. This book is worth reading as an introduction to that one. As regards the unavailability of this novel. I bought a brand new copy off the shelf in City Lights in San Francisco last summer after several failures in trying to get this and other Clavin Batchelor novels via the net. They had a full stock of all his works available.Maybe the old ways are still the best.

Rating: 4
Summary: A rant about the cold war by an underrated author.
Comment: Gordon Liddy is My Muse reads like a rant turned novel by Dennis Miller. Constructed of a series of vignettes involving various aspects of cold war Americana, John Calvin Batchelor voices an opinion on anything that springs to mind, culminating in one of the most pointless yet intriguing questions of the century: Who was Deep Throat? (Not the porn star, her namesake the political luminary.)

The patriotism is apparent, yet lacks any jingoistic narcissism, as our hero "Tip" wanders first through the Soviet Union, where he shows the change from totalitarian state to frontier justice. This is a precursor of the author's later novel Peter Nevsky and the True Story of the Russian Moon Landing (1993). Having gotten the obligatory Us vs. Them out of the way, Tip moves on to Us vs. Us in the good old Us of A., except for a foray into Germany, where its Us vs. Them vs. Us, and we continue to look for Nazis. For the rest of the novel, Tip maintains a domestic traveler with visits to Houston, Ohio, Miami, Maine, Arizona, and where the cold war will play while the ticket sales last, Hollywood. Through it all, Tip maintains his cynical isolation with the ever ready sarcastic quip and side glances at the camera, while providing commentary on what he perceives as the great cold war game; "sci-fi/spy" stuff.

Using an extensive array of references, literary, historical, and political, the author manages to create a satire which still shows affection for the very things he mocks. Up until the final title section of the book, the light handed humor of our hero remains constant. It is then that Mr. Batchelor becomes somewhat preachy - providing an acceptably plausible explanation of who exposed the details of Watergate, while both building up and tearing down the character of the second most victimized participant - G. Gordon Liddy. Lest we forget, the primary victim remains Richard Nixon, the scapegoat of our age and principal martyr of our cultural disillusion. The double entendres and previous wit seemingly vanish while the author presents his explanation of the crime and its results. However, the book remains close to the target as an entertaining exploration of current social history.

Ultimately the book is well worth reading, as are any of the author's works. Mr. Batchelor is a widely underrated author who has written novels in a multitude of styles, and always with integrity. Having read all of his novels but the sequel to this novel Walking the Cat (1991), and the political thriller Father's Day (1994), they are next on my list.