Checkpoint: A Novel
If you don’t like George W., you might likeCheckpoint—at least its uncontrolled rage against the administration. In his seventh novel, Baker focuses his trademark style of writing minutiae on a rambling conversation between two Bush detractors. “[It] makes Michael Moore’sFahrenheit 9/11look like a work of Jamesian subtlety and nuance. There isn’t a graceful or interesting sentence in this blunt, plotless, obscenity-laden screed,” saysEntertainment Weekly.The New York Times Book Reviewcalls it a “scummy little book.” Other reviews did not improve the book’s (or political tirade’s?) standing.Checkpointmay be worth reading as a passionate analysis of the Iraq war, but, even with its heightened emotion, it’s not a very original or engaging one.Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.