Real men don't speak French.

Friday, Aug. 25, 2006

Self-Promotion Is Its Own Reward: After less than a week of relentless horn-blowing by Rahm Emanuel and me, our book The Planhas already caught Albert Camus' The Stranger on its way up the charts. Dotty Lynch's review at cbsnews.com called The Plan "hilarious and insightful." The consensus on The Stranger: strange.

A kind review in The Economist includes what could become the celebrity poster of the season: Rahm as Rahmbo, with a submachine gun, bulging Stallone biceps, and a donkey tattoo. You loved the movie. Now read the book.

Last night, an overflow crowd turned out to hear Bill Clinton introduce us at a book event at Barnes & Noble in New York. Yet another reason we love the guy: You don't see George Bush showing up at book-signing events with Albert Camus.

The Man Without a Language: Far from improving his SAT score, a month of reading Camus seems to have left George Bush more linguistically challenged than ever. On Monday, at what Fred Kaplan politely called, "What a Moronic Press Conference!," the president's meaning was clear, but his words were often nearly impossible to deconstruct. "I see the challenge to what these threats pose to our homeland," Bush said, "and I see the challenge—what these threats pose to the world."

For years, we have dismissed these Bushisms as the struggles of a congenitally inarticulate Texan. Yet just as Bush's stubborn pride betrays a secret passion for France, could his abuse of the English language reflect a deeper problem: that his mind is trying to speak English while his heart is speaking French?

Isn't It Pretty To Think So?: In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway describes the American expatriate, "Mrs. Braddocks, who in the excitement of talking French was liable to have no idea what she was saying." Bush is the same way with English.

Here's Bush at Monday's press conference, reflecting upon his administration's impotence abroad: 

Sometimes I'm frustrated. Rarely surprised. Sometimes I'm happy. This is—but war is not a time of joy.

Here's Georgette Hobin, a Frenchwoman reacting to Jake Barnes's impotence in The Sun Also Rises: