Book Review

Oval Office Oddities: An Irreverent Collection of Presidential Facts, Follies, and Foibles

By Arlene Robinson 

“This is really hard!” I’m quite certain that’s the sentence most uttered by writers trying to concoct a strong query or cover letter.

They’re absolutely right. It is hard to write a good query letter, especially when you’re starting out. I don’t know anyone who really likes writing queries, and most agree: the process—especially writing the short synopsis—can be confusing and daunting. But adhering to the list of ingredients and following the basic formula can make it that much easier.

Oval Office Oddities: An Irreverent Collection of Presidential Facts, Follies, and Foibles (Harper Paperbacks)

Author: Bill Fawcett

Reviewed by: Arlene W. Robinson

I adore nonfiction as a reader, and enjoy editing nonfiction manuscripts, so when I picked up this book I looked forward to an interesting, informative read laced with humor. And, as I always do when beginning a new book, I hoped to pick up a few interesting tidbits I might share with future clients who've written similar books.

Not long into the read, I found myself spending more time counting the typos I kept encountering than enjoying the "oddities" presented -- while a few typos are certain to slip by in any published book, the number present in this book were enough to distract me from the read.

As I tried to ignore the typos, I found the writing a good match for a nonfiction tome for general readers: Fawcett has an easy, engaging style. It's just a shame, I decided, that the publisher allowed the book to slip through without a thorough proofreading. That happens sometimes.

But then I ran into a far greater concern -- Fawcett wrote that John F. Kennedy is buried in the National Cemetery in Bethesda, Maryland. (Kennedy is actually buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC!)

My "editor's eye" kicked in again, actively looking for questionable facts. And my doubt, once established by that first error of fact, led to finding a couple of entries I was certain were incorrect, and over a dozen that I doubted. I could have gone to Google to verify their accuracy, but ... well, that's not really the reader's job, is it?

Typos I can forgive. Errors of fact? Not so much. But the "oddities" didn't end there, unfortunately. I soon encountered an entire section made up of several lengthy (several-pages-long) passages that had nothing to do with oddities, presidential or otherwise. These passages were a dry rendering of the factors leading up to each major war in US history. It was almost as though I'd suddenly and accidentally picked up and begun reading a book on the background of war. While I've encountered an rare unrelated passage or two in a book -- what reader hasn't? -- I thought it strange to see so much unrelated text. "Oddities" indeed!

I suppose an established writer like Fawcett can be forgiven for producing a manuscript with these types of problems, and I suppose I will allow him one "stinker." I certainly don't consider that I wasted my time -- "Presidential Oddities" is a fun, light read. But, considering the cost of books these days, I think readers expect more careful fact-checking and proofreading that this title received.