Touchdown, Cynics

James Wolcott, in discussing the Frey-Oprah book flap, says a few things that needed to be said about dime-store sap.

I'm just automatically suspicious of every tale of woe that's peddled as a tale of redemption. The whole concept of redemption seems fishy to me, another form of sentimentality.

Americans love a born-again hero. It's almost pathological - the romanticization of the fallen seeking forgiveness. It pervades every element of our culture, from religious texts to secular psychotherapy to every branch of our literary heritage. Trite, easy to digest, and just as easy to fake.