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Michael Moore-Oscar-winning filmmaker, bestselling author, and the nation's official provocateur laureate-is back, this time taking on an entirely new role, that of his own meta-Forrest Gump.
Smashing the autobiographical mold, he presents twenty-four far-ranging, irreverent, and stranger-than-fiction vignettes from his own early life. One moment he's an eleven-year-old boy lost in the U.S. Senate and found by Bobby Kennedy; and in the next, he's inside the Bitburg cemetery with a dazed and confused Ronald Reagan. At the age of seventeen, he goes to get a snack one day and ends up on the national news-creating a firestorm that helps eliminate racial discrimination at private establishments across America. He begins his first underground newspaper in fourth grade; sixteen years later, the police are raiding the printing office of his latest publication-and the U.S. Congress steps in and takes up his fight. On top of all that, he becomes one of the youngest elected officials in the country at age eighteen-but not before planning a hilarious "dry-run" escape to Canada with his stoner friends just in case they get drafted to go to Vietnam. Fast-forwarding to 2003, he stuns the world from the Oscar stage by uttering the words "We live in fictitious times . . . with a fictitious president" in place of the usual "I'd like to thank the Academy."
And none of that even comes close to the night the friendly priest at the seminary decides to show him how to perform his own exorcism.
All of this is the stuff of great fiction-but every one of these stories is real. Before Michael Moore became the Oscar-winning filmmaker and all-around rabble-rouser and thorn-in-the-side of corporate and right-wing America, there was the guy who had an uncanny knack for just showing up where history was being made. You will be stunned and surprised to meet the Michael Moore you never knew.
Capturing the zeitgeist of the past fifty years, yet deeply personal and unflinchingly honest, HERE COMES TROUBLE takes readers on an unforgettable, take-no-prisoners ride through the life and times of Michael Moore. Alternately funny, eye-opening, and moving, it's the book he has been writing-and living-his entire life.
Oscar-winning filmmaker, author, activist Michael Moore might be typified best as a gadfly who has been pestering entrenched authority nearly his entire life. (He launched his first underground newspaper in fourth grade.) In Here Comes Trouble, he ranges freely over his maverick life, dropping down to recount his strange encounters with presidents and other politicians, media figures, business moguls, and white supremacist racists. Informal, hilarious, and irreverent.
Filmmaker and political activist Moore's outstanding memoir opens with an account of the infamous Oscar acceptance speech in which he proclaimed "Shame on you!" to President George W. Bush, and the ensuing fallout, which resulted in a slimmer Moore and 24-hour security from ex-Navy SEALS due to the many death threats he received. Eschewing a conventional linear narrative, Moore (Dude, Where's My Country?) offers 20 vignettes from his life that illustrate how his political and sociological viewpoints developed. Displaying his characteristic dry humor, his stories run the gamut, from the minor, a chance encounter with Senator Robert Kennedy in an elevator when a young Moore gets lost in the Capitol building, to the major, such as a high school speech that ultimately ended the Elks' Club's racist policies. True to form, Moore doesn't pull any punches, but he's grown as a writer, with more discussion and fewer extended rants than in his previous books. With the book's emotional highs and lows, and self-deprecating, empathetic style, Moore triumphs. Regardless of which side of the political fence readers are on, they're sure to find this collection enlightening, engaging, and occasionally enraging.
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Even those who weren't watching the Oscar telecast in the spring of 2003 must have heard about it during the aftermath. Moore, collecting his best documentary Oscar for Bowling for Columbine and joined by his fellow nominees onstage, proclaimed his dedication to nonfiction in his work and took aim at the fiction he said he saw all around him.
"We like nonfiction, and we live in fictitious times," he said to a mix of boos and cheers. "We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or fiction of orange alerts we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up."
At least it was short.
Moore has been telling truth to power -- or, to his critics, his version of the truth -- long before his groundbreaking 1994 documentary Roger & Me attempted to corner the General Motors chairman Roger Smith on why his company closed its plant in Flint, Mich., in favor of 11 new plants in Mexico.
He founded the alternative newspaper The Flint Voice in the 1970s, started a weekly radio show in Flint, and became the youngest school board member in the country when he ran for office in 1972. He was fired from the liberal magazine Mother Jones, reportedly for liberal activism.
But it was Roger & Me that made him something of an icon for the left. Heavy, sloppily dressed, almost always sporting a scruffy beard and a baseball cap, Moore is an everyman with a camera crew. And he has bones to pick with so many in power: General Motors, Kmart, the National Rifle Association, the Republican Party.
New York Times columnist Frank Rich looks hopefully to Moore as the left's rallying counterpoint to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, a welcome gust of humor from the deadly earnestness of the liberal movement.
"Like Mr. Limbaugh at his least grandiose best," Rich wrote in 2003, "Mr. Moore's persona is more funny than angry, more everyman than show-biz. He is not, as he puts it, ''a didactic, wimpy kind of liberal' -- one of those whiners that makes audiences reach for the remote faster than you can say ‘Phil Donahue.' Mr. Moore may not be subtle as a filmmaker or a polemicist, but the grandstanding glee of his broad strokes is precisely what makes him succeed as a showman."
Anyone familiar with Moore's tone on camera – from Roger & Me to Bowling for Columbine to his short-lived television program TV Nation, sort of an extended, edgy Candid Camera-style prank afflicted on the rich – will recognize him in print as well.
"As someone with a penchant for demagoguery, someone who thinks that the present political structure needs ‘to be brought down and removed and replaced with a whole new system that we control,' Mr. Moore plays to the camera even when he's doing it on the page," Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times in 2003, reviewing his book Dude, Where's My Country?
In his first book, Downsize This he jabbed at downsizing-happy corporate executives and other piñatas favored by the left. He followed that up with Stupid White Men he examined the new century after the bust of the New Economy and prayed for Jesse Helms to get kissed by a man. And, in 2003, he released Dude, Where's My Country? calling for a regime change in Washington. (One tidbit: The Internal Revenue Service actually has a specific form for tax refunds of $1 million or more. Perhaps some of you have seen it.)
With his first two books, Moore was something of a lone liberal voice on the best sellers lists. By the time his third was released, he had to muscle his way through people like Al Franken and Molly Ivins to get to his audience.
"When Stupid White Men appeared, its brand of name-calling was more of a novelty on the best-seller list. Now it is luxuriantly in flower," Maslin noted in her Times piece. "Mr. Moore will no doubt share a readership with Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them (which is funnier), Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose's Bushwhacked (which is better informed) and Joe Conason's Big Lies (also better informed), if not with Bill O'Reilly's Who's Looking Out for You? (politically opposite, but no less self-serving). But Mr. Moore, through real conviction along with showboating personality, does make himself the most galvanizing and accessible of the lot."
Liberals rub their hands with glee for equal time against Rush Limbaugh (who termed his own radio program "equal time.") But for some, Moore's brand of rhetoric is good news for the conservatives, not liberals.
"If this book is what passes for a political manifesto, then Tom Paine is truly dead," Alan Wolfe wrote of Stupid in The New Republic 2002. "Moore peppers his book with factoids, weird memos, open letters, bizarre lists, LOTS OF SENTENCES IN CAPITAL LETTERS, and name-dropping accounts of how he happens to know some members of the Bush family personally. It is meant to be satire, I suppose; but the only person skewered is Moore, who proves himself to be the only stupid white man around. Anyone bent on redistributing income in favor of the rich could not get a luckier break than having a critic like Michael Moore."
He is an enormous success in Germany. Publishers Weekly in 2003 reported that his book Stupid White Men sold 1.1 million copies during its first year in print in Germany, more than double than in the United States. Even the English version made the Spiegel bestseller list, the only book outside the Harry Potter series to do so.
Moore tangled with his publisher over the content of Stupid. HarperCollins had demanded changes in "offensive" material in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, but, with help from angry e-mails from librarians, the book was released unchanged.
JerryGK
Posted October 7, 2011
I really enjoyed Michael's book and to tell you the truth I couldn't put it down. To me it was like being down at the local gas station in the 1950's when I was a kid and listening to the stories older folks would tell about their lives and the people they had known and the wisdom I derived from it. It is sad how Michael and his family were treated and I could see things in my own life when I stood up for my beliefs and was put down for it and even some times beat-up for my convictions. When you take a stand for what is right and holy you can be sure the world will hate you for it.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 17, 2011
This is place for reviews, not political views. I would urge everyone to stick to the book, and resist ugly attacks.
6 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 27, 2011
I have read all Moore's books but in this one he writes something that goes beyond politics. There is something here to appeal to everyone. Whether you love Michel or hate him, buy the book. You will not be disappointed.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 14, 2011
"Reviews" from people who obviiously have not cracked open the book they are supposedly reviewing are useless.
5 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 29, 2011
Michael Moore's writing reminds me of Jean Shepherd's work; the stories are written in a tone that's naturally funny. However, many of Michael's stories end sadly, and the roots of his activism against injustice and prejudice are evident here. Reading this book was like participating in a great conversation that I didn't want to end. Those who believe that a Christian will act as Christ did will understand and like this book. Ignoramuses who believe in death threats to shut people up shouldn't bother. Michael, I'm sorry you need to have bodyguards, but I'm grateful that you do. At a time when the truth often belongs to those who can buy it on Fox News, you are needed. And my grandchildren will see what can happen if they are not vigorous defenders of human rights.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 13, 2011
If you ever wanted to know how Michael Moore grew up to be THE Michael Moore so many of us respect and love, you'll want to read "Here Comes Trouble." Each of his very personal stories provides a piece of the whole of who he is. As usual, he minces no words. My husband and I found time, even on our vacation, to read this to each other. In turns we found ourselves crying then laughing then nodding "OK, then, that's why he _______."
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 7, 2011
This book is a fast read. It relates a number of episodes, more or less in chronological order, in the life of filmmaker and writer Michael Moore and how he, a college dropout like Steve Jobs, and like Jobs from a relatively disadvantaged background, became successful and famous. Like Jobs, he thought for himself; he resisted authority in his case, and asked more questions than anyone wanted to answer. His persistence and his uncompromisingly humanitarian world view, based on both life experience and religious ideals, allowed his basic capabilities to emerge and let him develop into a powerful influence on our time.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 7, 2011
This book is great if you are interested in biographies and/or Michael Moore. I am a fan of both and have even started to retell the stories to my husband! I like it very much.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 24, 2011
Even though you may not agree with his politics, you have to admit that he has a unique voice. This book gives you some insight into how he bacame a filmmaker. Entertaining read.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 15, 2011
Yes, he can get a little carried away with details, but his overall essence is all there. Finished it in two days...
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 24, 2011
In these series of vignettes Moore reveals unsuspected accomplishments from his early life that are astounding. Between the humor, the pathos, and the excitement of one adventure after another - meeting famous and infamous people along the way - we see how his commitment to social and political reform got its start and its encouragement from both successes and failures. And also along the way, Moore has no compunction about admitting his insecurities and hesitations in the face of a burgeoning reputation as a "trouble-maker" by the established and often arthritic powers-that-be.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 17, 2011
He tells the story of my childrens generation better than most. It is people like him that lay the framework for change in our country. So many things get swept under the rug be our mainstream media . We need a lot more Michael moores in this country to raise the awareness of what goes on without the general publics awareness. A must read for those who care about our childrens future
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 24, 2011
i loved it!
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 21, 2011
He's had an interesting life! I enjoyed reading about his experiences, especially his time as a school board member. His stories inspire me to fight harder for things I believe in. It was a quick read, too.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 11, 2011
Moore reflects on his own life and his altruistic nature from childhood on. Love him or hate him his book tells of his commitment to fairness and his work in being true to that end. He had taken many hits to his personal reputation to help others. You cannot help but respect someone with that kind of passion doing what they believe in. This is someone who has taken action against unfairness even as a teenager.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 19, 2011
Michael Moore was wrong. When Glenn Beck mused at length on TV about whether or not to murder him, finally asking himself WWJD,? when Bill O'Reilly considered the topic as well, and when Bill Kemmer posed this directly to Moore, live, on TV, at the 2004 Democratic convention, "I've heard people say they wish Michael Moore were dead,." Michael should have understood they were just expressing their opinion. Not setting off loons in TV ville. . The picture of Michael Moore as a toddler, on the cover, under the title, of HERE COMES TROUBLE is perfect. You should have learned better by now, young man.. After a time, he should have known what to say to Kurt Vonnegut when Vonnegut, who befriended him, wrote Moore was his "hero" and when John Lennon talked to him offering to help.. "You guys are passé. That stuff is gone, that part of my life is over. The ideals of America, the integrity of a person. Forget it. Believing if you are kind to someone they'll be kind to you, that you should be honest and willing to hear the other person. That they should do the same. That you should ask questions, especially the ones they don't want you to ask, see what's happening around you and write it down, read, all of this should have ended when you closed your dorm door for the last time and walked out into the world." He and a friend who needed to move on and let bygones be bygones should not have demonstrated at Bitburg when Reagan visited the Nazi graves. He should not have created a crisis line because of the horrors happening to his friends. When a man came in with a shot gun one night threatening to blow his own head off when Michael Moore was alone there, he should not have treated him like a hurt human being. He shouldn't have saved the guy's life. The guy , like Moore, was a coward. Let him die if he wants to. What would Beck have done if confronted with that? Michael Moore has caused trouble for himself all his life. It was his parents' fault. They were on his side all the way. Imagine. How could he not know this? To become a member of the school board when he was 18 all because he refused to take a vicious paddling is so sadly disrespectful. Of course, if he had listened to people all around him, if he had let others define him, when he received the Oscar for FAHRENHEIT 9/11, all those boos and curse words thrown at him by so much of Hollywood would not have happened.. No one would have keyed his Oscar. Of course he never would have won that Oscar. His film would not have been personally screened by the Bushes. He never would have made a difference in this country by somehow in his soft voice, with logic on his side, won so many millions over to him. He would not have had to hire ex-Navy SEALS to protect him, and they did, such a danger he, defending all those nefarious minorities, and seeing the irony and hypocrisy. But if he had not caused trouble by holding fast to what we all say we believe., this gentle compassionate, decent man would not have been able to touch the human heart as widely as does. PEACE
2 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 3, 2012
This is a necessary read for people who are both fans and critics.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 31, 2012
I found this book an enjoyable book about his bio and experiences that made up his journalistic life. Not exactly easy being Michael Moore.
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Posted October 30, 2011
MM should stick with making his films as a writer he is not. I thought he wrote a lot of meaningless things and excergerated a lot.
I read through half the book and wanted a refund. Boring.
0 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 26, 2011
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Overview
"I had an unusually large-sized head, though this was not uncommon for a baby in the Midwest. The craniums in our part of the country were designed to leave a little extra room for the brain to grow in case one day we found ourselves exposed to something we didn't understand, like a foreign language, or a salad."Michael Moore-Oscar-winning filmmaker, bestselling author, and the nation's official provocateur laureate-is back, this time taking on an entirely new role, that of his own meta-Forrest Gump.
Smashing the autobiographical mold, he presents twenty-four far-ranging, irreverent, and stranger-than-fiction vignettes from his own early life. One ...