MISSING THE POINT NICHOLSON BAKER’S LATEST NOVELLA IS GOOD BUT, FRUSTRATINGLY, NOT GREAT
It’s a tough time to be a leftie in America.
Whether you’re Michael Moore, being ridiculed
everywhere, or Linda Ronstadt, dropped from a cushy
singing gig at the Aladdin casino for daring to praise
Moore during a show, opinions seem to be dangerous
things. For every Bruce Springsteen, who dared to come
out against George W. Bush in an election year and
plans to put on a series of anti–Bush concerts in
October, there’s a Marilyn O’Grady. She’s a conservative
candidate for a U.S. senate seat who launched a
television commercial called “Boycott the Boss,” which
says: “He thinks making millions with a song–and–
dance routine allows him to tell you how to vote… Here’s
my vote: Boycott the Boss. If you don’t buy his politics,
don’t buy his music.”
Punishment and ridicule for espousing beliefs is, of
course, madness, but madness seems to be the latest
fad—think 2004’s version of the fannypack. Case in
point: award–winning author Nicholson Baker’s recently
published novella Checkpoint. Basically, it’s about two
men who get together in a hotel and talk about
assassinating President George W. Bush. Wait a minute,
you may be saying—a book about killing the sitting
president of the United States? Published in an election
year no less? That is madness! Well, yes it is.
And unfortunately no, it is not. The premise itself is
madness: pure, golden madness, that kind of excellent
singularity that, when you first learn of its existence, you
sit and think about dreamily for hours. Unfortunately—
and, as it seems, is so often the case—the premise is
greater than its execution.
Clocking in at 115 pages, Checkpoint is a slender
novella comprised entirely of a dialogue between Jay
(he wants to kill Bush) and Ben (he doesn’t want Jay to
kill Bush). Their conversation is funny at times, and at
other times wistful. It’s even interesting every now and
