George & Martha

Karen Finley, an (in)famous performance-artist and poet, turns to the novel with this sexually deviant and deviously witty critique of American politics circa 2002. Finley`s performances are best known as the target for the assault by Jesse Helms and the fundamentalist right on the National Endowment of the Arts in the 1990s. The conservative groups were particularly appalled by a piece in which Finley stripped dude and smeared her body in chocolate to represent the police abuse of a young girl. Much of her work revolves around feminism and the society`s degradation of women and other marginalized peoples. In comparison to the raw, alarming power of her performances, her novel is, though shocking and provocative, relatively entertaining and pleasurable. GEORGE & MARTHA imagines an illicit tryst between George W. Bush and Martha Stewart in a grimy New York hotel. Finley uses this satirical springboard to launch into a full-blown psychoanalytic appraisal of George Bush, whose stupidity derives from a need to infantilize himself, and his need to attack Iraq derives from his desire to kill his own father. The book is brutally irreverent, politically savvy, highly erotic, and lots of fun. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.