One-Star Revue: THE PASSAGE OF POWER

One-Star Revue returns with extra vigor in 2013. This month, we take a look at some of the best-reviewed books from last year.

The latest installment of Robert Caro's expansive biography of Lyndon B. Johnson made best-of-2012 lists all across the land. Caro is very old now, and researching the next installment in Vietnam (as he has said he will) will be a tough endeavor for him, but at least he can bask in the unqualified support and respect of readers everywhere. No one would dare to criticize the work of this nonfiction titan, right?

Ah, Internet, you never disappoint. Even removing reviews that address a potential cover-up in the matter of the JFK assassination, what riches abound:

• "This book contains the most ungrammatical writing I have ever encountered."
• "Are we reading serious history or merely fat Si Newhouse copy?"
• "He never even begins to explain why the early sixties was marked by so much hope and enthusiasm and excitement."
• "Once you read the book, and check the sources Caro uses, you can see what he is up to... Very unbalanced and selective in order to make LBJ somehow look good and presidential."
• "The one book that Caro does seem to have read is a good one." Actually, this is an excellent burn and I plan to save it for future use.
• "The frequent repetition of [Caro's] earlier points reads like an essay from a student lacking confidence in his own paper panties thesis."
• "When a man of Caro's unarguable caliber gives four decades of his life to do the definitive biography of a key figure in our time, we expect him to BE THE EQUAL of his subject."
•  "Well, without having read one word of this part, I must say, that I am disapppointed."
• "Actually this book is not as bad as my 1 star rating would suggest, but given the old wives tales that are in this book and who this is a 1 star rating is dead on."

The other NBA

Your nominees for the 2012 National Book Award:

In fiction:
Junot Diaz, THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER
Dave Eggers, A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING (reviewed here)
Louise Erdrich, THE ROUND HOUSE
Ben Fountain, BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK (reviewed here)
Kevin Powers, THE YELLOW BIRDS

In nonfiction:
Anne Applebaum, IRON CURTAIN
Katharine Boo, BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS
Robert Caro, THE PASSAGE OF POWER
Domingo Martinez, THE BOY KINGS OF TEXAS
Anthony Shadid, HOUSE OF STONE

Check out the poetry and YA finalists here.

Hoping for a big win for Katharine Boo, whose BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS is so fascinating and incredibly reported. I don't really have a rooting interest in fiction; I would like Eggers not to take it, for reasons we can discuss, but my review is a good starting point. BILLY LYNN I liked with reservations, and I haven't read the others yet.

Likes big books, cannot lie

Great news for biography fans: Robert Caro's fourth Lyndon B. Johnson volume, THE PASSAGE OF POWER, is due out next May, nine years after MASTER OF THE SENATE. Less great news: It only covers up to 1964 (vice-presidential campaign to post-JFK assassination), meaning his putative LBJ trilogy will not be completed until Volume 5.

Every 3-4 months I look this one up and then I kind of shake my head a little, as if to say: Not on Kindle? Then not yet.