GEORGE W. BUSH: A CLOSET INTELLECTUAL?

Very few Italians – with perhaps the exception of our Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi – can be described as admirers of the outgoing President of the United States, who, in this country, as indeed in most of Europe, is largely a figure of ridicule. It can therefore be imagined with what surprise Italians read, on December 31, in the pages of one of the main newspapers “la Repubblica” an article by one of our best foreign correspondents, Vittorio Zucconi who, extensively quoting an article by Karl Rove in the “Wall Street Journal”, informed us that George W. Bush was, in fact, what we could call a closet intellectual who regularly read close to “one hundred books a year”.

It has to be said that Zucconi, in his elegant prose, wrote the article with his tongue very firmly in his cheek, and didn’t seem to believe the truth of Karl Rove’s assertions. It is however interesting that, in a desperate attempt to give the President some stature, his acolytes have now brought out the image of a studious book-worm with an absolutely incredible capacity at the absorption of books, to the tune of about three a week some of which, like the Holy Bible (which he allegedly reads every year) are not exactly light reading.

I am what is generally thought of as a “speed reader”, and, being retired, can dedicate plenty of time to reading. I have not counted ho many books I read in 2008 (I have this quaint, “old-European” idea that the quality of the books one reads is slightly more important than the quantity) but I have some doubts as to whether I have reached the magic number which would put me on an intellectual par with the President of the United States.. Even if all his alleged reading material were to consist in “non-books”, such as “Jurassic Park” or some Stephen King booklets, and even if he were actually capable of reading, I doubt that a man who ought to be busy at least in an attempt to undo the damage caused to his own and many other Countries, and who has with great modesty defined himself as “the decider” could even come close to that number. Some of the material he has allegedly read seems extremely serious, absorbing and thought-provoking (e.g. Albert Camus, “The Stranger”, or “Team of Rivals”, by Doris Kearns Goodwin) and it just makes me wonder if we have all misjudged the man.

Or perhaps, but we don’t dare imagine this, Mr. Rove was lying.