Recently by Paul Kopasz

I’m a Lebowski, You’re a Lebowski
By Bill Green, Bill Peskoe, Will Russell and Scott Shuffitt
Bloomsbury Press
$ 15.95
256 pp

The foreword by Jeff Bridges is a big bonus here but the real guts of this whole odyssey lives in the words of one Jeff Dowd. Dowd, for those who aren’t Achievers, is the real life basis for Bridges’ character in the Coen Brothers’ classic noir comedy, “The Big Lebowski.” “Achievers,” for those of you who aren’t, are those crazies single-mindedly devoted to the cult of “The Big Lebowski.” Now there is an official guidebook to the Lebowski Universe, a veritable Koran of all things Dude. It’s mandatory reading whether sitting on the can or between frames at the local bowling alley. The Lebowski juggernaut shows no signs of slowing. The local boys who’ve turned it into a bona fide cult phenomenon have done well; today fans cross oceans and continents to attend the yearly festival.

Michael Moore’s latest makes the point once again: we are living in the Golden Age of documentaries. This time, he affords us a disturbing look into the diseased guts of the American medical system.

Plenty of Americans – perhaps a majority – blindly believe that we have the best medical system in the world. In fact we are near the very bottom the list (#37) according to the World Health Organization. The fallacy of American medical primacy is one whose debunking takes up a good deal of Moore’s film. Toward that end Moore takes a truly circumspect approach: he (partially) circles the globe to look at the health care apparatus employed by other countries, namely Canada, Cuba, Britain and France. It is an evenhanded approach that perhaps slightly exaggerates the effectiveness of those systems, nevertheless, it is hard to dispute the superiority of all of them (with the possible exception of Cuba’s). If we’re going to import all our luxury goods and cars from countries that make a better product, why not import their health care systems as well?

Chicago born Jeffrey Deaver is definitely not one of our better crime novelists

Two recent books make the same powerful case against the current administration in diametrically opposite ways.

“Destined for Destiny”
the Unauthorized Autobiography of George W. Bush
by Scott Dikkers and Peter Hilleren
pub. by Scribner, 167 pp., $19.95

“Out of Iraq”
by William Polk and George S. McGovern
pub. by Simon and Schuster, 143 pp., $15.00

It takes neither Sherlock Holmes, nor Dr. Watson, nor one of the Hounds of the Baskervilles to sniff out the foul stench that has come to comprise the American political debate. Two recent books make this point in different ways. “Destined for Destiny,” by Scott Dikkers and Peter Hilleren, and “Out of Iraq,” by George McGovern and William Polk offer, by turns, gut-busting and sobering views of our current malaise.

Memorial
By Bruce Wagner
507 pp.Simon and Schuster

One of the two or three best novels of the last five years, Bruce Wagner’s “Memorial” is a towering achievement on almost every level: emotional, linguistic, political and spiritual. Wagner is writing at an altitude which will make many readers gasp and others feel truly high.

Wagner’s tale is told in four contemporaneous parts. Each subsequent chapter is told by one of four different characters. There is Marj, a wealthy widow with two estranged children. There are her estranged offspring Chester and Joan. There is Marj’s ex-husband (and the two kids’ father) Ray.

My only remaining hero (now that Townes and Burroughs are gone) was a guy named Arthur Lee who played in a 1960's group called Love and who died recently.

Jack Warden, who died in New York City on July 19, was raised in Louisville, KY. He was born in Newark, NJ, but by his high school years he was down here and cutting classes in order to indulge other interests. Eventually, Warden, born John Lebzelter, would be nominated for Academy Awards and appear in some of the finest motion pictures made during American cinema’s Golden Era (the 1970’s). Those other interests back then included boxing, at which he excelled, winning dozens of professional bouts at middleweight until war called.

The One Percent Doctrine
By Ronald Suskind
367 pp., $27.00
Simon and Schuster

For those interested in the back-room machinations that got us stuck in Iraq, this is the definitive explanation, the best book to read. Suskind previously aired the grievances of former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and the author’s inside access is proudly on display here. There is no attempt made to skirt the idea that Bush and Cheney planned to attack Saddam from the moment they laid claim to power. The question was, always: How did they do it? This book answers that question. Reading it is like reading a professional arsonist’s commentary on the hows and whys of the Reichstag’s burning.

It is probably not an exaggeration to say that the Coen Brothers’ “The Big Lebowski” has become well-loved enough to have seeped into the popular culture. It is also almost true that Lebowskifest – a fan-launched convention celebrating the film – is rapidly soaking through the otherwise moribund summer entertainment scene. Started in Louisville, KY some five or so years ago, the event has spread to Vegas, LA and New York City, its quirky charms winning over both fans of the film as well as newcomers.

Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan
St. Martin’s Press
231 pp.
$17.95

The best debut novel I’ve read in a long time is Paul Neilan’s “Apathy.” Neilan, a Portland, OR based novelist is wickedly adept at satire. His prose bites without actually tearing flesh or drawing blood. He is Chuck Palahniuk without the hatred. This is not meant to imply the writing is toothless, it is not. Rather, Neilan is able to viciously parody any number of “modern types’ – people we all know trapped in the mundanity of everyday American life – without condescension and with gentleness and compassion.