Incomplete Investigation

...Incomplete Investigation Citizen Nader By Charles McCarry Saturday Review Press 335 pp $7 95 Reviewed by Carole Cleaver Co-author, "The Artist as a Black American Horace Pippin" I must admit that I approach Ralph Nader with a certain bias (I love my Corvair) Nonetheless, one cannot help but admire a man who can take on the entire corporate state—and win In the age of David Riesman's "other-directed person," when social manipulation is the key to success, Nader is the refreshing exception, the lonely thinker with guts, perhaps the last great individualist He is the epitome of eccentric genius Inspired at Princeton, Nader was fascinated by the library and achieved superlative marks Disillusioned at Harvard, he would cut classes, merely squeak by He has always been a night person, arriving at offices as others are leaving, phoning people at three in the morning Arms loaded with manila envelopes he charges onto airplanes two seconds before take-off The publication of Unsafe at Any Speed had to be postponed for four months because he lost all his notes in a Washington taxicab Nader is incredibly naive, a quality which has both helped and hindered him He did not know that publications reviewing his book would lose GM advertising He did not realize that congressmen would use his research solely as political tools He did not believe Jock Ya-blonski's prophecy that for seeking the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America he would be murdered So where more realistic men would have feared to tread, Nader rushed in The plunge led to a fame which gave the sohtary monkish hfe he lives (on $5,000 a year) new dimensions His battle against the corporations spread from automotive responsibility to clean air, nutritious food, safer working conditions, better nursing homes—a spectrum for research beyond the powers of one man Thus he formed the Raiders, college students who devote their summers to fact-finding without pay, and the Pubhc Interest Research Group, a dozen lawyers he pays $4,500 each from the proceeds of his lectures But groups, as Nader well knows, create problems Is the great opponent of bureaucracy in danger of bemg bureaucratrzed9 The genius of the individualist is seldom compatible with the buttonholing of the administrator Despite his dynamism, it is said that Ralph Nader is a hard man to know, and unfortunately Charles McCarry's biography provides httle help Nader's celebrity resulted from his discovery of a faulty automobile, but where did he learn about engineering9 His whole compulsion has been directed toward the preservation of the human body (he is a nut about food, refusing alcohol, coffee, sugar, coke, and hot dogs), but how did he become so obsessed9 McCarry doesn't tell us Nader's life is one of devoted work and self-sacrifice, spurning money, sex, and leisure Why9 These are questions that a biography of Nader ought to attempt to answer Instead we have a chronology of congressional feuds, inadequate legislation, misunderstandings Though that is better than nothing, one can only hope that a better book will be forthcoming...