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...Skeffington, a charming but unscrupulous Irish politician, has received the last rites of the Catholic Church. The mournful retinue at the dying man's bedside includes an old foe, who in a misplaced attempt at forgiveness proclaims that if Skeffington "had it all to do over again, there's not the slightest doubt but that he'd do it all very, very differently." Skeffington opens his eyes and says: "To hell I would!"
This fictional act of defiance came to mind as I read the final pages of Robert Novak's sprawling, candid, informative, nostalgic, and entertaining memoir. Novak is not exactly on his deathbed, but he is battling his fourth cancer after having also survived spinal meningitis, a blood clot, and various other maladies. Enemies abound. On the right, in the pages of this magazine, he has been accused of insufficient patriotism. On the left, as the residue of the Valerie Plame affair, he has been denounced as a traitor. The CNN network, on which he was a conservative star, has dumped him. But Novak, at the age of 76, displays an almost serene equanimity. Love your country, but never trust your government, he tells a college graduating class that includes his daughter. He is proud to have been, in the spirit of his hero, the medieval troubadour and troublemaker Bertrand de Born, a stirrer-up of strife. Novak is grateful for his family, his faith, our country, and "having so much fun at the only trade in which I could imagine succeeding." He is not going gentle into any night, good...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
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