THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408300385
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY JILL BARRETT
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
PEGGY NOONAN
Random House. 255 pp. $23.
Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness is an ambitious undertaking even for Peggy Noonan, the highly successful Reagan speechwriter who penned the ``slipped the bonds of earth and touched the face of God'' eulogy after the Challenger disaster and coined ``read my lips'' to defuse the ``wimp factor'' for George Bush in 1988.
Her best seller, What I Saw at the Revolution, probed the psyche of Ronald Reagan and dissected the Reagan Revolution; this latest book probes the psyche of America and attempts to capture the essence of the '90s. Reagan infighting was much more interesting.
Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness is a tall order, too tall. The book, awash with Noonan's free-flowing ruminations, has no apparent structure. Under ``Liberty'' we find Donald Trump putting the moves on a model named Vandela at a black-tie dinner. Is Trump a libertarian or a libertine? Go figure. The Trump anecdote is only one of hundreds of brilliantly written, absorbing little stories that Noonan tells in a vacuum. She somewhat redeems herself, however, when writing about cultural malaise, steering clear of cliches and turning up fresh soil in well-plowed philosophical ground about liberalism and government social programs.
Noonan intends in her patriospective book to inspire the country to ``salvation.'' She reflects upon her own spiritual journey without seeming hackneyed and might have succeeded at her goal if she had reined in her writing a bit. One of the best chapters in Revolution was ``I Am a Camera.'' Noonan should set aside her telescope and microscope and consider using a slow zoom. MEMO: Jill Barrett is a writer who lives in Virginia Beach. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Peggy Noonan
by CNB