Al Franken, Giant of the Senate

by Al Franken

Overview

From Senator Al Franken - #1 bestselling author and beloved SNL alum — comes the story of an award-winning comedian who decided to run for office and then discovered why award-winning comedians tend not to do that.

"Flips the classic born-in-a-shack rise to political office tale on its head. I skipped meals to read this book - also unusual - because every page was funny. It made me deliriously happy." — Louise Erdrich, The New York Times This is a book about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history and an unprecedented eight-month recount saga, which is pretty funny in retrospect. It's a book about what happens when the nation's foremost progressive satirist gets a chance to serve in the United States Senate and, defying the low expectations of the pundit class, actually turns out to be good at it. It's a book about our deeply polarized, frequently depressing, occasionally inspiring political culture, written from inside the belly of the beast. In this candid personal memoir, the honorable gentleman from Minnesota takes his army of loyal fans along with him from Saturday Night Live to the campaign trail, inside the halls of Congress, and behind the scenes of some of the most dramatic and/or hilarious moments of his new career in politics. Has Al Franken become a true Giant of the Senate? Franken asks readers to decide for themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455571208
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	05/30/2017
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Senator Al Franken has represented Minnesota in the United States Senate since 2009. Before entering politics, he was an award-winning comedy writer, author, and radio talk show host. He's been married to his wife, Franni, for 41 years-many of them happy. They have two children, Thomasin and Joe, and three grandchildren. Senator Franken graduated from Harvard College and received his doctorate in right-wing megalomania studies from Trump University.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

May 21, 1951

Education:

B.S., Political Science, Harvard University, 1973

Table of Contents

Foreword 1

1 Why I'm a Democrat 5

2 How I Became a Comedian 10

3 Saturday Night Live (Not the Drug Part) 21

4 Saturday Night Live (The Drug Part) 30

5 Saturday Night Live (The Part Where I Leave) 39

6 Paul 46

7 A 99 Percent Improvement 51

8 Year of the Bean Feed 63

9 The DeHumorizer™ 75

10 I Attempt to Litigate Comedy 86

11 Hermann the German and the Pull-Out Couch 91

12 No Joke 98

13 Harry and Chuck 100

14 Icarus Soars 109

15 Twixt Cup and Lip 114

16 Public Opprobrium 119

17 My First Powwow 136

18 Tax-Dodging, Rape-Joking Pornographer for Senate 145

19 Franni Saves the Campaign 152

20 "Has It Gotten That Bad?!" 160

21 "It's Close, It's Very Close" 168

22 The Recount 172

23 Welcome to the NFL 182

24 I Actually Become a Senator 186

25 My First Big Win* 190

26 What Gets Me out of Bed in the Morning 196

27 The Case of Perry Mason's Lost Case 199

28 The Angel and the Devil 203

29 Never Give the Staff Credit 212

30 Letting My Id Run Amok 219

31 I Screw Up 229

32 Operation Curdle 235

33 Health Care: Now What? 247

34 I Meet George W. Bush 267

35 The 64 Percent Rule 271

36 My Republican Friends 283

37 Sophistry 293

38 Bulletproof 308

39 Cracks in My Soul 314

40 The Koch Brothers Hate Your Grandchildren 329

41 No Whining on the Yacht 335

42 I Win Awards 344

43 We Build a DeHumorizer™ 349

44 I Get Reelected 359

45 Lies and the Lying Liar Who Got Himself Elected President 367

46 I Attend a Presidential Inauguration 376

47 Being as Good as the People We Serve 386

Acknowledgments 393

Index 397

Editorial Reviews

04/17/2017
In this excellent, insightful memoir, comedian turned senator Franken recalls his unlikely path to public service. He was raised in a middle-class family in a Minneapolis suburb, tried to launch his comedy career while still an undergraduate at Harvard University, and found success when he landed a gig in 1975 as one of the original script writers on Saturday Night Live. He and his colleagues, some of them fueled by alcohol and drugs, indulged in late-night writing sessions that made the show’s sketches part of the cultural lexicon. The heart of this memoir is Franken’s decision to move back to Minnesota from New York City to run for the U.S. Senate against the Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman. Franken’s decision seemed rather quixotic at first, and the 2008 campaign was notable for GOP denunciations of Franken’s satirical writings as well as his wife’s public disclosure of her struggles with alcoholism. Coleman initially won by 725 votes, which triggered an automatic recount that gave Franken the victory by 312 votes. Due to repeated legal challenges from Coleman, however, Franken wasn’t seated until July 2009. Not surprisingly, Franken is quite a raconteur, and he tells the story of his remarkable life and times with a sense of humor that is always irreverent and often self-deprecating. One thing is no joke, however: he’s very serious about his job representing the people of Minnesota. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"The best political book of 2017."—Alex Shephard, The New Republic

"In this excellent, insightful memoir, comedian turned senator Franken recalls his unlikely path to public service...Franken is quite a raconteur, and he tells the story of his remarkable life and times with a sense of humor that is always irreverent and often self-deprecating."—Publishers Weekly

"This is a great book about politics. No joke...Compulsively readable [with] laugh-out-loud lines in every chapter."—Booklist Starred Review

"[AL FRANKEN, GIANT OF THE SENATE] may...be the funniest memoir by a sitting - standing, recumbent, squatting - U.S. senator. Scratch that 'may.' It surely is. This is a genuinely funny book, often hilarious...the Senate, and the country, would be the poorer without him. He's an American original."—Christopher Buckley, The Washington Post


"Admirably incautious...Franken has weaponized the gifts that proved so useful for comedy - a sharp eye, a sharper tongue, the ability to tease out the essential absurdity of a given situation and deliver the goods with maximum impact." —Mark Binelli, Rolling Stone

"In a breezy, funny, biting, and often earnest read, Franken pulls off what many of his congressional colleagues have failed to do: write...an interesting and honest memoir."—Sam Brodey, MinnPost.com

"A fun and compelling book. [Franken] uses self-deprecating humor to poke fun at everyone on either side of the aisle, and he gives readers insight into the daily workings of life in the Senate. His love of the people and the state of Minnesota is crystal clear."—Jeff Ayers, AP

"With this book, Franken is both resistance leader and family counselor...A hilarious guide to what happens when a comedian runs for Congress."—The Nation

From the Publisher

01/01/2017
How celebrated comedian Franken got from Saturday Night Live to the U.S. Senate; with a 325,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

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