All Intensive Purposes

Michiko Kakutani reviews Ari Fleischer's "tedious and tendentious" new book.

Full of excerpts from Mr. Fleischer's often contentious exchanges with members of the press, it is essentially a collection of talking points hastily pasted together with large slatherings of the vitriol and exasperation the author seems to have accumulated during his years as a "piñata," his word for how he sometimes felt in the White House briefing room. In short, it's an extended exercise in Mr. Fleischer's spinning his own earlier spin.

Let's just say I'll be reading Mankell first.