cover image Destined for Destiny

Destined for Destiny

Peter Hilleren, Scott Dikkers, , read by the authors. . S&S Audio, $29.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-7435-6557-8

The authors maintain the satirical Web site WeeklyRadioAddress. com, which presents bogus audio clips, press releases and public policy directives in an uncannily official manner. In this "unauthorized autobiography" of George W. Bush (with Dikkers, editor-in-chief of the Onion , portraying W), the distinguished pair of pranksters manages to serve up consistently entertaining and well-engineered—if not particularly inventive—political humor. Many of the recurring gags (sheltered prep-school privilege, a spotty résumé, a dogmatic worldview, lack of cultural sophistication) will no doubt generate hearty chuckles among listeners, especially those outside the committed GOP partisan tent. Yet, in today's bold new era of "fake journalism" led by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, it somehow fails to deliver a stinging knockout blow against the neo-con orthodoxy of the White House inner sanctum. Dikkers, Hilleren and S&S Audio do merit special recognition for innovation in the multimedia format of the bonus fifth disk, which offers iPod-ready MP3 files for easy downloading. The disk also contains documents and photos from the hardcover edition, a video retrospective and ersatz "noted presidential speeches and addresses." Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 23). (Nov.)