I cannot say enough good things about this book.When I first heard about GYWO,it was from a blurb that appeared in the city's free alt-media paper back in the winter of 2001. It was,for the longest time,one of the best kept secrets on the internet. Sure, the profane dialogue and satirical commentary is funny and poignant but what adds to the humor is the artwork itself! Clearly pinched from some old comic like "Mary Worth" or "Apartment 3-G", the simplistic absurdity that comes from two guys slacking off in the office bitching about how...the War on Terrorism is hilarious almost to the point of surreal.Rees may have just earned a place in the cartoon world as the freshest and most sardonic political satirist since Gary Trudeau.

Less than a month after the September 11th attacks, David Rees published the first set of Get Your War On cartoons on his website. I discovered GYWO in early 2002, when 7 or 8 sets had already been published, and immediately I became a fan. There's something intrinsically funny about generic clip-art pictures of office workers using extremely foul language to discuss important political issues. Rees not only seeks to provoke laughter, but to make a point: that even in the post-September 11th era, a little skepticism about the U.S. government's actions is a good thing.

You don't need to read far to figure out that David Rees is not thrilled with the U.S. "war on terror" and all the accompanying propaganda. His characters speak with a variety of tones, from excessive exuberance that looks suspiciously like sarcasm (e.g. "Oh my God, this War on Terrorism is going to RULE! I can't wait until the war is over and there's no more terrorism!") to fatalism ("If you want me to hand over that planning report, you're more than welcome to bomb my cubicle. Who gives a [expletive] anymore?"). The cartoons cover many subjects, such as the bombing of Afghanistan, domestic anti-terrorism programs, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Exxon Mobil's links to murders in Indonesia, the collapse of Enron, and the constant fear that another major terrorist attack could be just around the corner. The cartoon character Voltron also randomly makes an appearance.

GYWO isn't for everyone, of course. Supporters of recent U.S. policy might be irritated by Rees' harsh sarcasm and deep skepticism about American motives. Also, you need a dark sense of humor and a tolerance of gratuitous profanity to appreciate the book. Take the following line as an example--while discussing the food packages that the U.S. dropped in Afghanistan, one character says "it turns the relief effort into a fun game for the Afghan people--a game called 'See if you have any [expletive] arms left to eat the food we dropped after you step on a landmine trying to retrieve it.'" If you're offended, you may want to think twice before buying this book. For a person with the right sense of humor and outlook on politics, however, the book is hilarious.

Some people might be thinking that the book isn't worth the money, because the cartoons are available for free online. This isn't quite true, however. The book includes a few cartoons that don't seem to be online (it also leaves a few of the online cartoons out). Furthermore, the author's royalties from the book go directly to landmine relief, so by purchasing the book you're donating to a worthy cause.

I have not bought this book yet but I have read the online comics. They are one of the most hilarious cartoons about the war on terrorism, but I must warn firm supporters of U.S. foreign policy to stay as far as way as possible from this book. You will be so offended that you will be calling Lynne Cheny to tell her to put David Rees on the terrorist watch list and ban all of his literature. If you have a dark sense of humor, a fan of Doonesbury, and you are not offende by profane language, then I recommend this book for you. It only costs $...which is cheap for most collections of comic strips. All of the royalties given to David will go to fight for getting rid of land mines and getting the the U.S. to stop producing land mines, which is a very worthy cause. If you are still not sure if you want to buy this book then may I suggest that you go to a search engine and search for Get Your War On. You should be able to find his free site which contains a bunch of free comic strips from Get Your War On. If you like these free strips then you should love the book because it contains 100 pages of that kind of humor. Almost forgot. If you are a fan of Mallard Fillmore or you are the author of Mallard Fillmore, don't buy this book because you will hate it more than the Clintons, The New York Times, and Tom Daschle combined.

This intriguing book succeeded in capturing my imagination, but wasn't the type of book I could really savor. Whitehead has reached far and wide, deconstructing a number of accounts to create a montage, or a stamp collection if you will, of John Henry Days. The premise was simple enough. A rat pack of free-lance writers covering the inaugural day celebration of the newest commemorative stamp issued by the post office. One black reporter stood out like a sore thumb, and we are reminded a little too much of this. A few other blacks were sprinkled into this tale set in a remote West Virginia town which still eats Wonder bread. Fortunately, Whitehead didn't stick to convenient racial stereotypes. Instead, he used this town to represent Middle America, which J had to navigate if he was going to come out with a story, and keep his "streak" alive.

The best scenes in my mind were those that played with the John Henry theme more closely. The others seemed to be flights of fancy. Inticing sometimes, but straying wide of the mark on other occasions. Whitehead seemed to have taken Ellison's "Invisible Man" from his underground chamber and brought him to light in a comtemporary setting. John Henry Days seemed like the perfect foil, but Whitehead didn't go very far beyond character sketches. This novel read like a reporter's notebook, a novel in progress, not a full length work of fiction. As such, it left me a little disappointed.

I never thought somebody could have made a book comparing/contrasting a junketeer journalist on the verge of spiritual extinction and a mythical, superhuman former-slave railroad builder "must-reading". I didn't even know what a junketeer was. Never thought much about the building of the railroads (feel a little guilty). And never heard anything about John Henry either. (Am I from a cave?) These subjects just never crossed my mind. But I love good novels, and I'm a hard person to please (a poet no less). After happening on Mr. Whitehead's interview on public radio, I thought it sounded interesting. And then he was on the cover of Poets and Writers. All that hype, and the prestigous awards. The New Literary Darling. I bought the book and it sat on my shelf whilst I read Franzen's "The Corrections". After reading that, my palette was sophisticated. I have not been able to find another novel quite as worth my time, as brilliant and sweeping and amazing. That is until John Henry Days. The prose is not just ostentatious (though he does command with a magic wand), it is succulent, it is mouthwatering. I literally slaver over paragraphs and sentences as I go. I cannot believe someone has such a command, such a god-given gift. But besides the delectability of it all (forgive me, but it is John-Henry strength), it is a story brilliantly weaved, expertly built, and simply GOOD. It speaks on many levels if you listen. Mark my words: Coleson Whitehead will win a Pullitzer (or National Book, or Nobel) Prize. This guy was born to write.

John Henry Days has received so much attention lately (loved by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as examples), so much so that I had to run right out and buy the hardcover. Does the novel live up to the hype. Yes, yes, definitely yes. There is so much to rave about in this novel. Whitehead writes like a dream. Each sentence is a work of art, and those sentences add up to a great story filled with uniquely believable characters, witty dialog and observations and an interesting story. J. Sutter is a journalist, a junketeer, taking up every invitation he receives to attend a free conference to cover whatever needs coverage. This time, it is John Henry Days, the celebration of a new postage stamp, in a West Virginia town where John Henry's legend is said to originate. The world and his job are beating J. down, just as John Henry's world and his job beat him down. But this time, it's not as obvious as grueling physical labor, instead it's the day to day grind of the junketeer's life. Whereas John Henry's world was obviously killing him, J.'s world is much more subtle. But J. has hope, whereas, we'll never know whether the legendary John Henry did. The novel juxtaposes tragedy with humor, bittersweet sadness with hopeful optimism. It embraces much of what it is to be American, as seen from J.'s perspective. All in all, a well told tale with much to recommend.

If Spike Lee married Ben Katchor, their son might write The Intuitionist. But since this is unlikely to happen, Colson Whitehead had to do it instead.

A powerful racial allegory written with unpretentious clarity and a cynical, deadpan sense of humor, The Intuitionist is set in an unnamed but clearly New York-based metropolis that shares many qualities with the off-kilter city inhabited by Katchor's comic creation, Julius Knipl. The Intuitionist's city could be an earlier, more vital stage of Julius Knipl's just-past-its-prime version of New York. Whitehead vividly evokes this setting while telling a seriocomic story about a clash between factions of elevator inspectors that unexpectedly takes on racial overtones. The Intuitionist is remarkable first for its setting, second for the matter-of-fact way Whitehead writes, which is witty, incisive, and intelligent without making it seem as if the author is in love with the sound of his own voice, and finally for the character of the protagonist, Lila Mae Watson, who is tightly wound and hard-bitten but still sympathetic.

The Intuitionist is well worth reading, and while it is a challenging read due to its depths and undercurrents, it is also a fast and enjoyable one because Whitehead does not neglect character, plot, and general readability in the name of "literature." If the reader will forgive a lame pun, like a well inspected elevator, The Intuitionist works on all its chosen levels.

There's a lot more going on here than one would think. This thoroughly original novel is not so easy to classify either. I don't think that Whitehead meant us to see the Empiricist/Intuitionist division as entirely black and white issue. Whitehead uses the period term "colored" throughout the book as well and it is not just a historical word choice, in my opinion. After all, not all the Intuitionists are black. Gould - the escalator expert - is a redheaded Irish American and chooses to side with the Intuitionist camp. And even the role of characters like Marie Claire Rogers (the black mistress/domestic of Fulton) is being overlooked by other readers/reviewers. Marie Claire clearly does not like what Lila Mae stands for and accuses her of playing a role, wearing a uniform that makes her someone other than who she should be in Marie's eyes. And Lila Mae continues to put on other uniforms and play other roles throughout the novel in a kind of search for her place in this anonymous metropolis populated with schemers and plotters. What I like most about this book is it's menacing atmosphere, a subtly sinister air that colors each incident, each meeting, each exchange between characters in shades of deceit, mistrust and duplicity. This is like a literary marriage between Dashiell Hammett and Ralph Ellison. However, I fail to find anything riotously funny here. Whitehead's style is witty and biting at times, but there is nothing knee-slapping, howlingly funny here. Those who do find this some kind of ha-ha comedy are most likely the people Whitehead is warning us about.

If only every piece of new fiction were this powerfully written, lots of us would do nothing but read fiction. The originality of metaphor and observation of character and place remind me of the best of Toni Morrison. The mesmerizing scene-building, the meticulous sense of place, the enigmatic plot, the powerful, original writing--not to mention the coherence of the central metaphor of verticality--I'm considering reading The Intuitionist again for the sheer enjoyment of its language and intellect. All this, and a page-turner at the same time. Whitehead is a rare find: a master of fiction in an age which has a dearth of them.