Posted on 05/25/2005 12:31:09 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
NEW YORK, May 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Maureen Dowd, following the success of her acclaimed New York Times bestselling book, Bushworld, has turned her lapidary prose and wicked wit to a topic even more incendiary than presidential politics: sexual politics. Dowd's new book, ARE MEN NECESSARY? When Sexes Collide, will be published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on November 8th, 2005. The New York Times columnist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for saucy and incisive commentary about the roundelay of Bill, Monica, Hillary and Ken Starr, digs into the Y and X files, exploring the mysteries and muddles of sexual combat in America. Neil Nyren, Senior Vice President, Publisher and Editor in Chief of G.P. Putnam's Sons, acquired world and audio rights to ARE MEN NECESSARY? from literary agent Esther Newberg of ICM.
Mr. Nyren comments, "Maureen has been writing brilliantly about the battle of the sexes -- socially, politically, culturally -- for decades, so this is such a natural subject for her next book. I'm extremely excited about it."
In ARE MEN NECESSARY?, Dowd explains why getting ready for a date went from glossing, flossing and gargling to Paxiling, Fraxeling and Googling; why men are in an evolutionary and romantic shame spiral; why women have reeled backwards in many ways; why male politicians and male institutions get tripped up in so much monkey business; why many alpha women, from Martha to Hillary, can only have a successful second act after becoming humiliated victims; and why the new definition of "Having It All" is less about empowerment and equality than flirting and getting rescued.
Dowd observes that four decades after the sexual revolution, nothing has worked out as planned. The sexes are circling each other as uneasily and comically as ever, from the bedroom to the boardroom to the Situation Room. Having reported on historic explosions on the sexual battlefield from Geraldine Ferraro's vice presidential run to the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings to Hillary Rodham Clinton's reign as co-President, Dowd explores not only how many of these shining feminist triumphs soured, backfiring on women - but how Hillary, a feminist icon busy plotting her campaign to be the first woman president, delivered the final blow to female solidarity herself.
Women's liberation has been less a steady trajectory than a confusing zigzag. Feminism lasted for a nanosecond and generated a gender tangle that has bewitched, bothered and bewildered men and women for forty years. Now comes a woman to cut through the tangle and tickle Adam's rib. The battle of the sexes will never be the same.
NOTE TO THE PRESS:
Maureen Dowd's first book, Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk (G.P. Putnam's Sons hardcover, Berkley paperback) spent ten weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and was one of the most talked about books of 2004. National and print media included two appearances on NBC's "Today Show," appearances on "The Late Show with David Letterman," "Imus in the Morning," "The Charlie Rose Show," "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace," NPR's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, and Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," as well as feature interviews with photos in both Vanity Fair and W Magazine, and a review in The New York Times Book Review.
Dowd became a New York Times op-ed columnist in 1995, having written about the White House and its occupants since the Reagan Era. Previously she wrote the "On Washington" column for The New York Times Magazine. She has also written for Time magazine, GQ, The New Republic, Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, Sports Illustrated and Redbook. She is a native of Washington, D.C.
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin Books, The Penguin Press, Philomel, Plume, Puffin, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The Penguin Group (http://www.penguin.com ) is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
Yes, I've been to that Lowe's, but it's not like you describe, onyx, must be the times I go.
Yep, I definitely googled what I told you. I was wrong about one small detail: Home Depot is # THREE (3) on that list, not #4.
Yeah, people talked about how much it sucked!
From Oxblog:
IMMUTABLE LAWS OF DOWD1. Ashcroft never deserves credit.
2. Offering constructive solutions to problems, instead of whining endlessly about them, is a sign of weakness.
3. The People Magazine principle: all political phenomena can be explained with reference solely to caricatures of the personalities involved ("Dubya" is stupid; "Poppy" is an aristocrat; Cheney is macho-man; etc.). Any reference to the common good or even to old-fashioned politicking is, like, so passe.
4. It is much better to be cute than coherent.
5. Maureen knows best. Her long years as a columnist (doing basically what your great-aunt Tillie does in the nursing home bull sessions, but getting paid for it) have given her deep insight into foreign relations, politics, welfare, the Constitution, and all other topics. To disagree with Maureen in any way is not only a sign of being wrong, it's a hallmark of pure evil...or at least membership in the NRA, which is pretty much the same thing.
6. It is usually possible and always desirable to name-drop and name-call in the same sentence.
7. The particulars of my consumer-driven, shamefully self-involved life reveal universal truths.
Explanation of the Dowd/Douglas connection: by Miss Marple- 2/11/03
Ms. Dowd was escorted around New York and DC for many months by one Michael Douglas of Hollywood fame and fortune. She got to go to all the best parties, was photographed for the tabloids, and was picking out a gown to wear at the Oscars. Of course, Michael had become interested in her during Clinton's impeachment, when she had written some very anti-Clinton columns. After a few weeks of the Michael treatment, she began to write anti-Starr, anti-Newt columns, ignoring Clinton.
Then Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. In an amazing coincidence, Michael Douglas dropped Ms. Dowd like a hot potato, and instead picked up a hot tomato, Catherine Zeta-Jones, who subsequently bore him a son and they were married.
Ms. Dowd cannot get over her tragic loss. Her columns are increasingly anti-Bush, in the hope of impressing her lost love, Michael.
In addition, we think she has a secret crush on the President and is trying to get him to pay attention to her. Ha!
Great answer! Thank you!
I'll never view MoDo nor Ms. Jones in the same way.
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