“Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics”, by Charles Krauthammer

 

400 pages, Crown Forum, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1770496538

God, I miss Charles Krauthammer; oft-times, he was the only reason to watch “Special Report” on Fox, and when he died in 2018 a great deal of my interest in that one-time Conservative NewsChannel passed, as well. Which is why I snatched-up his 2013 book Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics (from Clinton-Macomb Public Library for $1.00), a compendium of his articles and pieces from the many publications he wrote for – his voice may have been silenced, but the man’s words live on. And what words, too; few writers have the knack to cut through fancy rhetoric and partisan bullshit and get to the heart of a subject through incisive writing and cutting intellect. Krauthammer could and did, which makes his loss, after finishing this book, even harder to bear.

But his is a book about things that matter, and a great many things mattered to Krauthammer outside of politics, like art, math, music, chess, science and sports, and he used these differing, non-political fields to explain his politics in his usual forthright manner (some of his more pungent observations had me bursting out loud with laughter). While this book cannot be described as Deep Reading – they are, after all, articles designed to be consumed in a few minutes – the prose is addictive and the “chapters” are brief, typically two-and-a-half pages or so (so brief, in fact, that you’ll find yourself saying “okay, just one more and I’ll close the book” – only to read a half-dozen more before you realize it). Any of you bleeding-heart liberal commies wanting an insight into the Conservative Mind could do worse than start with Things That Matter.