The Burning of the Reading Public
Levine, Arthur
The Burning of the Reading Public by Arthur Levine Last year Robert Coover followed in the distinguished footsteps of E. L. Doctrow by writing a novel, The Public Burning, that was about...
...But their affair will be very secret, and FDR will never suspect a thing...
...Farley is a tall, amiable Long Island politician with an uncanny ability to remember first names...
...But to FDR, these assertions of national independence-no more dangerous than our own Revolutionary War-are part of some grand conspiracy to take over the world...
...And in 1938, fueled by centuries of outrages, insults, and cruelties, Hitler’s plucky guerillas free Austria and the Sudetenland...
...What about those U.S...
...Otherwise, it’s open to anyone...
...He’s impatient...
...FDR and his corporate pals say, “What’s good for the munitions factories is good for America,” but the people turn a deaf ear to his pleas...
...Slums, sweatshops, leper colonies-his homely wife loves to wallow in other people’s misery, outlet perhaps for the years without sex (16, to be exact), comfort for the chill between them...
...So who’s Depressed...
...Nazi Big Shot, it’s your move...
...Nurse, give this man an injection of welfare,” the Doctor screams...
...What fun...
...The German embassy sends a strong letter of protest, but no further action is taken...
...On the day after his election, his campaign manager, Jim Farley, calls a secret meeting to map his bold economic strategy...
...It’s not our policy to declare war unless attacked...
...We’re ready when you are...
...These so-called “countries” are little more than puppet states propped up by Western powers seeking to preserve their spheres of influence...
...No more blackboards and dusty archives for him, no sir...
...It must be 103 degrees in the shade,” Steinbeck points out...
...As one hit songsays, “War, what is it good for...
...There isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between them,” he announces one day to his cowed aides...
...A little scaredy-cat...
...It’s like a Joe Louis roundhouse right to FDR’s famous jutting jaw...
...En‘core...
...A ‘Fantasy: It’s almost like Uncle Sam’s there with a shaved skull, strapped down to a table, and all these electrodes and tubes are pumping optimism into the brain and green cash into the blood stream...
...If we make it easy for them, I think they’ll do it,” Farley says...
...I will not be the first American President to be humiliated by some two-bit foreigners...
...Talk about poverty...
...And when FDR makes one of his few public attacks on Adolf Hitler, Germany’s National Socialist leader, he’s roundly criticized for it...
...The irony of his comments go unnoticed at the time...
...He nearly jumps out of his seat when Lucy Mercer walks in...
...He’s been arguing for deficit spending for years, but now he’s got the rare opportunity to put his schemes into practice...
...No response...
...But what really angers him is the clumsy response of Hoover to their protests...
...How’s this sound, folks...
...Take the Drought, whipping through the Great Plains in the mid-l930s, turning the whole place into one big overheated sandbox with enough sandstorms to make Lawrence of Arabia blanch...
...What do we do now...
...Five thousand banks have failed, and General Motors, for example, has only 14 part-time employees on its payroll...
...Flowers are strewn at their feet and the natives weep openly at the sight of the Nazi good-luck symbol, the swastika...
...Then they make a dinner of cube steak and beans...
...answers Miss West...
...The country is in an uproar...
...What’s that, Mister...
...What a mess...
...Frankenstein with a new patient...
...His jaunty smile fades faster than you can say, “multinational corporation...
...He looks up hopefully...
...Stocks on the Big Board are down to eleven per cent of their 1929 value...
...In a special nationwide broadcast on the Nazi peril, he says, “Adolf Hitler is nothing but a little faggot...
...Federal agents are soon on the scene, and a plausible cover story is concocted: a lone assassin, Dr...
...Flying shrapnel, dead boys shipped back in coffins, broken familiesthey’ve learned their lesson from World War 1, when, it is said, old tycoons sent young men to die for no reason...
...Let a thousand agencies bloom...
...It seems like every day in Washington some new alphabet-soup agency is set up to solve yet another arcane problem, but it doesn’t seem to have much impact on the lives of the struggling, surging, heaving masses (quite a sick and exhausted bunch they are, too...
...three girls are shot in the back, all of them under ten years of age...
...Now, as he waits for Lucy, he scans the day’s papers, and he’s starting to get ANGRY...
...It raised Coover from obscurity to fame...
...He’s still breathing hard...
...Guthrie asks his companions...
...For people like these, their final hopes are extinguished, snuffed out like some last flickering flame-POOF!-when the Kingfish, populist Huey Long of Louisiana, gets pumped with lead inside the Baton Rouge statehouse...
...Blimps float overhead with huge neon arrows blinking on and off...
...In desperation, he calls in his aides...
...But FDR has other things on his mind as he zips around the country in private rail cars and trimotor airplanes...
...If he was a REAL MAN, he’d declare war against us...
...Do you have the courage to fight the United States...
...Mellon had been allied with Hoover, but now he’s going with the winner...
...Widely known as the George Washington of his country, Hitler has rebuilt German national pride after his country’s defeat in World War I. Over the years, the once proud Holy Roman Empire has been carved up by a succession of occupying countries until the German people find themselves reduced to a small morsel of land-while their brethren languish under the heels of neighboring tyrants...
...Boy, am I glad to see you” he says...
...Ojher countries struggling for independence, such as Italy and Japan, have the hopes of the world with them as they seek to liberate their countrymen, whether it’s in nearby Et hi o pia or faraway Manchuria...
...comes the answer from Mae West, one of his many paramours...
...He’s in the action now...
...tax refund checks (total: $325.89) cashed by Dr...
...The Public Burning was full of sexual innuendo and left-wing conspiratorial thinking, all told in a breathless tone--Richard Nixoh’s romance with Uncle Sam, the Rosenberg case, and other important events from our recent past...
...By now, most of them are too fearful to explain that his simplistic notions ignore the political and cultural differences between the countries...
...Woody Guthrie, Henry Fonda, and John Steinbeck are all escaping their wretched pasts in Oklahoma to seek a better life in California-if they can sneak past the border guards...
...Nothing happens...
...Subsidize everything...
...Goddamn...
...A few fringe critics try to point out some continuing mysteries: What about that strange black man, “Raul,” who traveled around the state buying guns...
...Now all that’s changing under some uppity new leaders, with some wild ideas about national independence...
...He goes on radio imitating Japanese accents and calling Tojo “a very short and ugly person with a real dog for a wife...
...So, naturally, the question resounds from one end of the continent to another, from families huddled near the radio to flinty barons of Wall Street, from the poorest sharecropper to the wealthiest magnate, “HOW DOES HE DO IT...
...December 7, 1941 is a day that shall live in infamy,” FDR tells the American people in his dramatic, stirring voice...
...He does an Eve1 Knievel-style “wheelie” in his wheelchair to show his approval...
...Or will you stay on your barren island as your women lose all respect for you...
...Then Jim Farley, that savvy pol, realizes that the Japs might be tempted to attack our Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor if conditions are right...
...We might never again”his voice chokes with emotion-“be able to enjoy the sanctuary of exclusive private clubs like this...
...At night, floodlights display the ships in a “Son et Lumiere” spectacle...
...But even after FDR’s inaugurated, the damnable ole Depression just won’t quit...
...These bums are ruining our country,” he mutters to himself, hurling a bundle of newspapers (the Times, the Tribune, the Post, the Item, the Sentinel, the Eagle) straight across the room...
...Think of it...
...FDR is outraged...
...They start in with some brainstorming, each idea another plank in the Great Barricade they’re constructing against the rising tide of unwashed masses...
...The danger is clear...
...She’s supposed to return from dropping Eleanor off at a local orphanage, one of the many institutions of suffering that his wife visits...
...Here she is, ample proof of the benefits of the American Way of Life...
...People are going crazy with hunger, eating shrubs off the ground, fighting with dogs for scraps of meat, breaking into grocery stores...
...But,” they ask themselves, as do millions of other curious Americans, “how”-their faces turn red, they start to stammer-“does he”-this is just an awful thing to ask-“do IT...
...Here on this sweltering July day in 1932, stuck in a dreary governor’s mansion in Albany, with the country teetering on the brink of revolution-threatened by Commies, Jews, Negroes, perverts, hobos, eggheads, agitators, dope fiends-well, Arthur Levine is a contributing editor of The Washington Monthly...
...No, no, a thousand times no...
...By God, there’s still a chance, then,” FDR exults...
...If it weren’t for the glittering parties that FDR attends every night, his mood near the end of the decade would be a lot worse...
...Then, we begin our nightly broadcasts by a sensuous lady known as Hawaii Rose...
...Later, of course, she will take up with Paul Robeson as outsiders puzzle over her vehement devotion to the Negro cause...
...A few days later, Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S...
...That’s what they’re there for,” the irrepressible Prexy-to-be quips to friends, his blue eyes twinkling...
...For Keynes, this is the big chance he’s been waiting for...
...Finally, the Japanese can take no more and launch a “surprise attack” on our fleet, while much of the base personnel is on shore leave...
...FDR is sweating with anticipation as he thinks of it, his face beaming with pleasure...
...FDR responds with a booming laugh...
...The Doctor is pleased with his handiwork...
...And in one notorious incident in Kincaid, Illinois, hired thugs gun down handicapped youngsters protesting 18-hour workdays...
...As one popular song puts it: You better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they area-changin...
...in Lincoln, Nebraska, 4,000 people take over the statehouse...
...I don’t know, Woody,” Steinbeck says, “it needs some work...
...So we decided to try it ourselves, by revealing the real story of the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt...
...Forty per cent of college students say they won’t fight in any war, even if their mothers begged them or their girl-friends teased them or their coaches called them sissies...
...He begins a wild series of provocations...
...He’s not the only guy who can produce tasteless, fictionalized, debunking versions of American history, we thought...
...Later, in consulting with Keynes, FDR also learns that a war would have a wonderfully healthy effect on the economy...
...Frank,” Mellon tells the President, “we either take a stand here, or they’ll be coming up the shores of San Francisco...
...And with a prig like Eleanor for a wife-whose Russky leanings he secretly despises-who could blame a red-blooded American like FDR for taking advantage of a secretary or two...
...Very carefully...
...Polls show support for peace, but FDR, holed up in the White House, labels it “isolationism” (he should talk...
...Guthrie looks dejected...
...In Tokyo, an Americanfunded sky-writing plane flies over the beaches with the slogan: COME TO PEARL HARBOR...
...Zilch...
...They break into a rest room and wash up...
...Shall I prepare the bed...
...His mechanical voice sings: “Happy Days are here again...
...Federal relief funds...
...There’ll be nothing left...
...The signs are bad...
...Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria-all these client states would fall of their own weight if not for Allied support...
...Besides, the Depression gives everybody more than enough to worry about...
...The public bought it...
...Speaking of heat,” Fonda says, “you could fry an egg on this pavement...
...The only passport you need is to be internationally famous and incredibly rich...
...Well, Mr...
...One, two, three, four,” they chant, “we don’t want your silly war...
...The melody’s not bad, but the words aren’t so hot...
...She rolls him slowly towards the bedroom and opens up the door...
...Big business is on the ropes...
...The day before, the police and U.S...
...Seeing this, we thought, if Coover can do it, why can’t we...
...FDR gets his wish: the next day Congress declares war on Japan...
...The glamorous parties are a time for serious talk, too, and it is at one of them that FDR learns of the gravest threat yet to his plans to save the economy...
...Bravo, Adolf...
...A few more PR fiascos like this one, he knows, and it’ll be Guillotine City for FDR and his fellow aristocrats...
...every last delicious ounce of it, all his...
...his cigarette holder bounces up and down between his teeth...
...Hot enough for you...
...Worse yet is the threat of revolution...
...And what about our pride...
...For our corporations, a cheap labor force is in danger of being capriciously placed “off-limits” because of stubborn national pride...
...When the monster awakes, his rebel spirit will have been killed, drained, lobotomized...
...That’s what greatness is all about...
...As a member of the upper class, he’s naturally repelled by these unshaven drifters, what with their whining and bad table manners...
...Nearly 30 per cent of the population doesn’t have any income whatsoever...
...They ask: what real threat does the German leader pose...
...He is the creation of the New Deal...
...Worse, these countries are the nation’s main source of copper, electronics equipment, rice, and beer...
...Va-va-va-voom ! The Honorable Governor of New York, the Democratic Nominee for President, the Paralyzed Patrician from Hyde Park, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is more than ready for his afternoon tumble with his wife’s social secretary, the very luscious Miss Lucy Mercer...
...Prime the pump...
...Fonda sleeps on his back, Guthrie on his stomach, and Steinbeck on his side, his legs curled up...
...By the time FDR is elected, the country is going down the tubes...
...Well, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,” Guthrie adds...
...Weiss in May 1935...
...The critics loved it...
...The Burning of the Reading Public by Arthur Levine Last year Robert Coover followed in the distinguished footsteps of E. L. Doctrow by writing a novel, The Public Burning, that was about real historical people and events, mixed with made-up people and events, mixed with made-up events happening to real people, in such a way that it was impossible to tell what was fact and what was fiction...
...To Frank, as he calls himself, the marchers should have been given donuts, coffee, and promises of government action-and then sent on their way...
...And at one deyrted gas station, outside of California, three exhausted hobos share a bottle of whiskey as they wait for the cool darkness to come...
...What to do...
...Two members of the rag-tag Bonus Army were killed, and the rest were driven from the city...
...Hoover is just a plain fool, FDR thinks, and his ham-handed brutalities only make things worse...
...He sings in a reedy twang: “This land is your land/this land is his land/from San Diego/to Yosemite National Park /this land was made for all Americans...
...And his advisors are equally embarrassed by his ignorance of global subtleties...
...Flag-waving workers battle with mounted policemen while singing “L’Internationale.’’ In Chicago, penniless teachers storm the city’s banks...
...For a few hurly-burly hours, there’s music and booze and laughs and maybe a few extra babes for the Prez himself...
...Planning begins at once...
...Hey, you fat Wop,” he shouts at Mussolini on a trans-Atlantic broadcast, “you got spaghetti for brains...
...World opinion, as expressed at the Munich summit, applauds...
...But he won’t, because he’s chicken...
...Our overseas investments, he learns, are imperiled by radical changes in the governments of Germany, Italy, and Japan, once the lands, respectively, of happy-golucky beer-drinkers, pasta-eaters, and geisha girls...
...After all, to the President of the United States (!), he’s more than some absent-minded professor...
...Otherwise, they’ll be fodder for the Communist cause...
...Millions wander around aimlessly looking for work, and teenage girls riding the rails sell themselves for a dime...
...At the parties, FDR gets a chance to unwind...
...Before leaving the next morning, they each brush their teeth, shave, go to the bathroom and tie their shoelaces...
...He’s as happy as Dr...
...FDR sets the tone...
...America’s common folk have no choice but to head West in their jalopies, piled high with guitars, scantily-clad teenage daughters, old tires, and rusty auto parts...
...And for good reason, say the peaceniks...
...Gentlemen,” he says, “our world is threatened by insurrection...
...As the sun sinks over the horizon, the three vagabonds prepare for the evening...
...Prime the pump,” he says...
...Boys,” she whispers to the Japanese, “are you true Samurai...
...Carl Weiss, did the dastardly deed...
...But FDR’s faced with one stubborn problem: The American people don’t want war...
...Later, after they become casual lovers, he tells her, “Mae, baby, the people of this country need more movie stars like you to keep their minds off of the Depression...
...His mission: saving corporate America...
...Typically, a visiting celeb, like Jack Benny or Clark Gable (no stud in real life, incidentally), is the guest of honor at the swank estate of a Washington socialite...
...Absolutely nothing...
...How come he isn’t married...
...If we give Hitler Czechoslovakia,” he raves to stunned intimates, “then he’ll socialize all of Europe...
...When the busty starlet first meets FDR at a Hollywood party, she rolls her eyes and says, “Is that a pistol in your pocket, Governor, or are you just glad to see me...
...they ask with slackjawed wonder as they rattle down that old lonesome highway...
...Army have attacked thousands of starving veterans camped in Washington, who’ve merely been begging for a “bonus” for their military service...
...Seventeen million men are out of work-most of them with families-and that’s in a country with only 123 million people anyway...
...But on this summer afternoon, July 29, 1932, the Guv is waiting for Lucy...
...The question also intrigues reporters who note his aristocratic good looks, wide teeth, high forehead, jaunty cigarette holder, flowing black navy cape, broad shoulders, height (six feet two inches), bulk (1 90 pounds), huge freckled hands, and the aforementioned twinkling blue eyes set close together over dark shadows...
...And how...
...Roosevelt,” Lucy whispers demurely, her head cast downwards...
...Yeah, Hank...
...FDR’s baffled by the spontaneous national support for the courageous little countries-Italian and Japanese restaurants are flooded with customers, boxes of American candies are sent to Tokyo and Rome, newborn babies are named “Benito...
...To me, Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo are all the same...
...Her specialty,” he jokes, “is LeHand job...
...And no wonder...
...Well, those kooks can holler all they want, because the FBI says there’s no conspiracy, and that’s final...
...Back at the London School of Economics, they’ll finally stop laughing at him-the funny walk, the monocle, the awkward manners...
...FDR is more than match for any challenge...
...They sing around the fire and cook marshmallows...
...There’s stars galore, from show-biz, Lit, politics, and the halls of Ivy, not to mention other spheres of achievement...
...Ninetyfour ships are steamed into the port in broad daylight...
...who wouldn’t want a respite from all that...
...But with a small group of trusted advisors, among them Harry Hopkins and Jim Farley, FDR tries desperately to lure the country into war...
...Then they take out their sleeping bags and go to sleep...
...The names he remembers for this meeting are industrialist Andrew Mellon, a former treasury secretary, advisor Harold Ickes, and John Maynard Keynes, the British economist...
...Before we know it, we won’t even be able to recognize our own companies, with all those funny-looking foreigners sashaying around our executive suites, chomping cigars (swiped from us, no doubt) and barking out orders in strange tongues...
...An entire nation converted into his own personal economic laboratory...
...The Gross National Product is worth little more than the value of a medium-size steak...
...You’re right, boys,” FDR answers...
...No matter how unimportant the person, he always remembers his name: George, David, Melvin, Jane, Fred, and countless others...
...At your service, Mr...
...When he’s President, by God, the mobs will be kept off the streets with meaningless make-work jobs and the promise of social security benefits...
...Best of all, his upper-class world will be preserved: all the parties, private schools, elite universities, fancy estates, hunting trips, pliant secretaries, European summers, yachts, furs, motor cars, jewels gold moolah Old Boy Network...
...Otherwise, he may take along his personal secretary, Missy LeHand...
...Fonda asks Guthrie, who is composing a song on his guitar...
...Here’s the scoop: One night over drinks, Elihu Root, a Wall Street lawyer, and the ubiquitous Andy Mellon tell FDR about a dark new menace growing overseas, worse than tariffs, worse than gift taxes, worse even than the diplomats who don’t speak English properly...
...For God’s sake, is this any way to handle a revolution...
Vol. 10 • March 1978 • No. 1
