Dude, Where's My Country?

By: Michael Moore

Narrated by: D. David Morin

#1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Moore's incisive examination of the failures of the United State's political system, paired with thoughtful guidance on how to move forward.

In case anyone in Washington hasn't noticed, Americans are fed up with the status quo. In this, the first shot fired over the bow of the 2004 Presidential election, Michael Moore aims to unseat the man who slithered into the White House on tracks built by the bloody hands of Enron and greased with the oil of his daddy. As if an unelected, semi-literate president weren't problem enough, America's Democrats have managed to take the liberty out of "liberal," signing on with the G.O.P. for dirty corporate money and the ill-gotten gains of globalization. The "left" is just as satisfied as the right to stand idly by as the chasm between the haves and the have-nots grows wider and wider.

Thank god for Michael Moore because Dude, Where's My Country tells us precisely what went wrong, and, more importantly, how to fix things. In a voice that is fearless, funny, and furious, Moore takes readers to the edge of righteous laughter and divine revenge.

WORST. NARRATOR. EVER

I generally enjoy Michael Moore. His extreme left viewpoints are a refreshing balance to the extreme right opinions I see and hear every day. I appreciate the fact that he criticizes with humor, and though I do not agree with him on everything, I think he has some good points to make.

The problem with this book, however, it that they could not have hired a more mudane, boring, over enunciating narrator. I swear every joke and clever quip loses every ounce of humor with this guy reading it. Michael should have read it himself.

Makes one think

I really enjoyed this for about the first 3 hours. Then, it just got a bit boring and I found myself drifting mentally and physically. I did get all the way through it but you really have to like listening to Mr. Moores philosophy to get there in one . . . read?

Dude, when's this audiobook going to end?

"Dude, Where's my Country?" is Michael Moore's clever new catch phrase, which jokingly invokes the name of that Ashton Kutcher stoner flick that you probably set on auto-ignore three years ago. Here, the phrase is presented in the form of a kind of indignant rallying cry, murmured sweetly into your ear by another one of those darn-happy-to-know-you narrators. This one sounds a bit like Michael Moore but cannot hope to summon up the amount of sarcastic outrage required here. As if the director forgot to supply him with his motivation, he squeaks on and on about, among other things, the war in Iraq (these are agonizingly long, vitriolic chapters despite the squeaking), greedy corporate executives (ironically, Moore's bread-and-butter) and later on -- speaking of bread-and-butter -- holier-than-thou vegetarians.

Moore's book is mainly about getting rid of Bush, but he explores other topics, too -- like the reason why you'll never, EVER be rich, or why your employer wouldn't mind it if you died. Here, his words take on the angry tone of a late-night drunken debate, but, actually, it's the best part of the book. Moore seems to enjoy bashing the rich, and he's quite good at it, maybe even the best; of course the rich ARE an easy target -- especially when one considers his audience

As critics have noted, Moore does tend to rant, but when occasionally he manages to touch the right nerve, "Dude, Where's my Country?" works really well. His use of profanity from time to time actually livens things up instead of feeling forced, even though the narrator sounds about as natural using the F-word as Dan Rather enunciating "bling-bling" on the evening news. Expect a lot of boring statistics near the end as he provides mountains of evidence that prove once and for all that America is really a liberal country. Do NOT expect to laugh very much. Despite its title, this book is surprisingly mundane.

A Solid Read, but with an Amatuer Feel

Not nearly as good as "Stupid White Men," this is still an entertaining, insightful, and thought-provoking listen. At times, Moore's writing-style feels amatuerish; his sentence-structure is at times awkward to listen to, but perhaps that is also part the Narrator's fault, whose recycled, passionate-less, and unvaried tones almost suggest a lack of intelligence.

But I digress... If you're into political books, this should definitely be on your reading list. Witty, Classic Michael Moore. And, to disagree with another one of the reviews on this page, Moore does, actually, give a venerable plethora of suggestions on how one can go out and do his or her part to change what is a less-than-satisfactory status quo.

Enjoy!

Good, but take with a grain of salt!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm forever grateful for Michael Moore's existence. His body of work (perhaps with the exception of the TV Nation episodes that devolved into mindless shock-jockery) is always thought-provoking, unflinching, subversive and disturbing.

That said, 'Dude, Where's My Country' is not nearly as good as 'Stupid White Men'. Much of Mr. Moore's invective still strikes home and awakens in the reader a sense that all is not well in America's halls of power. Nonetheless, the book often feels like an under-researched, albeit passionately felt, diatribe.

I got the sense, as I listened, that Moore wanted to get the book out in a hurry so he could use his readers as a large focus group for his next film.

All in all an entertaining, incisive listen whose "facts" should not necessarily be taken as gospel.