Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys

by Matt Labash

Overview

One of the most gifted and entertaining journalists writing today, Matt Labash can extract comic humanity from even the most wary politicians, con artists, and rogues—while shedding wisdom about the rich corners of our American experience. Fly Fishing with Darth Vader pulls together the best of Labash’s feature writing and includes his masterful profiles of the outrageous characters who populate America’s periphery, his loving and lacerating portraits of New Orleans and Detroit, and his hilarious tirades on the health hazards of Facebook and the virtues of dodgeball. Among other must-read essays, Labash chronicles Al Sharpton’s eating habits, fishes the Snake River with Dick Cheney, and investigates the “great white waste of time” that is our neighbor to the north.

Labash was born with a natural appreciation for the American scoundrel and a sense that life is one big chance for laughter. For those reasons, Fly Fishing with Darth Vader will be cherished and talked about for years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439159989
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	02/15/2011
Pages:	317
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Matt Labash is a senior writer at The Weekly Standard, where he has worked since 1995. He lives in Owings, Maryland, with his wife and two children.

Editorial Reviews

Matt Labash’s book rocks. He is Hunter S. Thompson on acid.” — P.J. O’Rourke

“Consistently one of the best magazine writers in the country.” — David Brooks, The New York Times

“I started reading Matt Labash because I was beginning to be afraid that the devil had all the best tunes: now it's the tunes themselves by which I am seduced.” — Christopher Hitchens

“Matt Labash is, simply put, one of the best journalists in the country. He's a brilliant writer—hilarious, profound and sharp as an X-Acto. His prose can do the impossible—even humanize Dick Cheney.” — A.J. Jacobs

“In a just world, Matt Labash would be celebrated as the heir to Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson and other writers in the 1960s and 1970s who were corralled under the rubric of ‘new journalism’. . . . Like the best of the new-journalism practitioners, Mr. Labash inhabits a story so thoroughly that readers feel as if they're at his side, seeing events with his sharp eye, privy to his wisecracks, savoring moments when he reels in what feels like the truth.” —Mark Lasswell, Wall Street Journal

“Every now and then, a collection of remarkable stories from a magazine writer has the effect of unleashing a significant new voice on an unsuspecting public. Tom Wolfe's Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby comes to mind. And so it is with Matt Labash's wonderful Fly Fishing with Darth Vader." —Mark Warren, Esquire

From the Publisher

Journalist Labash takes readers to the fringes in his portraits of people and places outside the mainstream and, very often, beyond our ken. His subjects are outlandish and unforgettable: take Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, the hunting, cussing, NASCAR-loving political strategist who promises to deliver the rural white vote for the Democrats. Or Kinky Friedman, the Jewish cowboy running for governor of Texas under the campaign slogan “Why the Hell Not?” His profiles of disgraced former Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry, corrupt former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Vice President Dick Cheney stand out for their affecting portrayals of the humanity behind the larger-than-life personas. On occasion, Labash settles for lampoon and ad hominem attacks rather that insightful critique, as in his too-easy rant against Facebook or his mean-spirited report from the floor of an academic conference on adult entertainment. But when he sticks to profiling the antics of the lunatic journalists, political hacks, and ego-loving candidates that he so clearly adores, he gives readers a real glimpse at the strangeness and silliness that suffuse American political life. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly