Fly Fishing With Darth Vader: And Other Adventures Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, Jewish Cowboys

• Masterful writer: In The New York Times , David Brooks hailed Matt Labash as “consistently one of the best magazine writers in the country.” He is not alone. Considered one of American’s most brilliant writers by the journalism community, this long-awaited book debut presents Labash at his very best. A latter day Leibling, Labash’s collection will take its place alongside books by writers such as Calvin Trillin and P.J. O’Rourke..• A unique voice that’s well-connected: Labash’s well-informed insights, self-deprecating wit, and provocative candor feature regularly in The Weekly Standard and have also appeared in Washingtonian Magazine , American Spectator , and on Slate.com. Extremely well-liked and respected, his media contacts are many and varied. He has declined invitations to appear on everything from HBO Sports to Meet the Press —but is finally willing to make the rounds. As LA Weekly wrote after his Detroit piece, “it’s not new to give props to Matt Labash.”.• Remarkable collection: Full of wit, insight, and a trenchant grasp of the American scoundrel, Labash’s masterful profiles of men on the nation’s fringe—Pirate Kingfish Gov. Edwin Johnson, The Right Reverend Dr. Al Sharpton, Dirty Trickster Roger Stone—are published alongside devastating pieces on such dead or dying cities as Detroit and New Orleans; work celebrating such joyous, but overlooked pockets of American culture as Revival music and Rebirth Brass Band; and scathing, hilarious briefs on the nation’s great phonies—Michael Moore, Louis Farrakhan, Donald Trump to name a few..

One of the most gifted and entertaining journalists writing today, Matt Labash can extract comic humanity from even the most wary politicians, con artists, and rogues&;while shedding wisdom about the rich corners of our American experience. Fly Fishing with Darth Vader pulls together the best of Labash&;s feature writing and includes his masterful profiles of the outrageous characters who populate America&;s periphery, his loving and lacerating portraits of New Orleans and Detroit, and his hilarious tirades on the health hazards of Facebook and the virtues of dodgeball. Among other must-read essays, Labash chronicles Al Sharpton&;s eating habits, fishes the Snake River with Dick Cheney, and investigates the &;great white waste of time&; that is our neighbor to the north. Labash was born with a natural appreciation for the American scoundrel and a sense that life is one big chance for laughter. For those reasons, Fly Fishing with Darth Vader will be cherished and talked about for years.