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George Bush, Dark Prince of Love
An uproarious, biting political satire about one ex-con’s obsession with the 41st president, from the author of A Children's Bible —a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction and one of the New York Times Book Review ’s ten best books of the year.
"Some women like muscle. Brute strength, or the illusion of it. Their idea of an attractive man is a craggy meatpacker with a squirrel brain, who likes to crush vermin with his bare fist. I call these women Reaganites....Personally, I've always preferred the underdog."
Rosemary is an ex-con with no viable career prospects, a boyfriend old enough to be her grandfather, and a major obsession with our nation's forty-first president, whom she fondly refers to as "G.B." Unexpectedly smitten during his inaugural address, Rosemary is soon anticipating G.B.'s public appearances with the enthusiasm she once reserved for all-you-can-eat breakfast buffets. As her ardor and determination to gain G.B.'s affection grow, Rosemary embarks on an increasingly outrageous campaign that escalates from personal letters to paid advertising, until at last she reaches the White House.
What happens next is nothing like how Rosemary imagined it would be.
Written with razor-sharp satiric wit and packed with wry observations of our times, our presidents, and our electorate, George Bush, Dark Prince of Love is a hilarious antidote to the hype and hypocrisy of America's most hallowed institutions.
"Some women like muscle. Brute strength, or the illusion of it. Their idea of an attractive man is a craggy meatpacker with a squirrel brain, who likes to crush vermin with his bare fist. I call these women Reaganites....Personally, I've always preferred the underdog."
Rosemary is an ex-con with no viable career prospects, a boyfriend old enough to be her grandfather, and a major obsession with our nation's forty-first president, whom she fondly refers to as "G.B." Unexpectedly smitten during his inaugural address, Rosemary is soon anticipating G.B.'s public appearances with the enthusiasm she once reserved for all-you-can-eat breakfast buffets. As her ardor and determination to gain G.B.'s affection grow, Rosemary embarks on an increasingly outrageous campaign that escalates from personal letters to paid advertising, until at last she reaches the White House.
What happens next is nothing like how Rosemary imagined it would be.
Written with razor-sharp satiric wit and packed with wry observations of our times, our presidents, and our electorate, George Bush, Dark Prince of Love is a hilarious antidote to the hype and hypocrisy of America's most hallowed institutions.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 25, 2000
3 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Lydia Millet
43 books1,107 followersLydia Millet has written twelve works of fiction. She has won awards from PEN Center USA and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and her books have been longlisted for the National Book Award, shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and named as New York Times Notable Books. Her story collection Love in Infant Monkeys was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She lives outside Tucson, Arizona.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
July 7, 2017
Rosemary, the implausible anti-heroine of this riotous satirical novel, is an obese factory worker with a criminal record and a penchant for the ex-prez so strong she keeps a shrine devoted to his many notable political manoeuvres, the most prominent being Big Bush’s flirtatious relationship with Ol’ Saddam (remember him?). Across the novel, the sharp-tongued heroine wrestles with her own incipient madness alongside the Bush regime’s well-established national madness, taking a traumatised Vietnam vet as a lover, avenging her ex-boss, and slowly worming her way towards the White House, where she spills from her seductive streetwalker’s get-up to the floor before the hellacious oilman. A consistently uproarious, broadly comic novel written with bilious panache.
July 24, 2010
Could be the best reference tool/scathing editorial ever devised against the eldest Bush's administration. The sheer genius of glimpsing that turbulent era through a female ex-con suffering an acute infatuation with the 41st leader of the free world. My only qualm with this book was that for a white-trashy, drug-addled, probably-spent-more-time-getting-drunk-than-studying person...our narrator and main character was suprisingly verbose.
February 11, 2008
Lydia Millet, George Bush- Dark Prince of Love (Scribner's, 2000)
The idea of anyone finding a president sexy-- at least, any president we've had since, oh, Teddy Roosevelt or so-- strikes the same kind of nerve with me as does the idea of having weird leechlike creatures infest peoples' bodies and turn them into mutant zombies (see? there's Night of the Creeps again!). The idea that someone could take such a feeling to the obsessive heights of the stalker is right up there with having dinner at Alf Packer's house. And that's exactly what Lydia Millet gives us in her second novel, George Bush, Dark Prince of Love. It's sick, it's twisted, and every once in a while it's extremely funny.
There's always a rather nasty outsider's-perspective criticism (Millet comes originally from Toronto, though she now lives in Arizona) rumbling just beneath the surface, rather like the ground as her three-hundred-pound plus protagonist, an ex-con named Rosemary (we're never told her last name), goes by. Rosemary is a real peach, the kind of person you never want to be on the wrong side of-- after all, she may decide to wire your office with plastique. Through a rather odd coincidence, Rosemary finds herself feeling as if she has a spiritual connection with George Bush, and we see the four years of G.B.'s presidency through the decidedly jaundiced eyes of Rosemary as she alternately deals with her life as is and tries to get herself into positions where she might manage to usurp Barbara's place in the estimations of the man of her dreams.
Thought the book weighs in at a rather slim 159 pages, it still feels like it goes a tad long. There are some sections about halfway through that bog down. But then, one could argue, that's exactly how Bush's presidency went. Amen. So I'm willing to give Ms. Millet the benefit of the doubt, at least enough to go searching for her first novel, Omnivores. Work this twisted deserves an audience. ** 1/2
The idea of anyone finding a president sexy-- at least, any president we've had since, oh, Teddy Roosevelt or so-- strikes the same kind of nerve with me as does the idea of having weird leechlike creatures infest peoples' bodies and turn them into mutant zombies (see? there's Night of the Creeps again!). The idea that someone could take such a feeling to the obsessive heights of the stalker is right up there with having dinner at Alf Packer's house. And that's exactly what Lydia Millet gives us in her second novel, George Bush, Dark Prince of Love. It's sick, it's twisted, and every once in a while it's extremely funny.
There's always a rather nasty outsider's-perspective criticism (Millet comes originally from Toronto, though she now lives in Arizona) rumbling just beneath the surface, rather like the ground as her three-hundred-pound plus protagonist, an ex-con named Rosemary (we're never told her last name), goes by. Rosemary is a real peach, the kind of person you never want to be on the wrong side of-- after all, she may decide to wire your office with plastique. Through a rather odd coincidence, Rosemary finds herself feeling as if she has a spiritual connection with George Bush, and we see the four years of G.B.'s presidency through the decidedly jaundiced eyes of Rosemary as she alternately deals with her life as is and tries to get herself into positions where she might manage to usurp Barbara's place in the estimations of the man of her dreams.
Thought the book weighs in at a rather slim 159 pages, it still feels like it goes a tad long. There are some sections about halfway through that bog down. But then, one could argue, that's exactly how Bush's presidency went. Amen. So I'm willing to give Ms. Millet the benefit of the doubt, at least enough to go searching for her first novel, Omnivores. Work this twisted deserves an audience. ** 1/2
November 13, 2008
A quick little novel with a funny, insane protagonist of the sort I am only too familiar with as a member of the Eastern Media Elite! The main character is obsessed with George senior... the kind of person my days in the mailroom have sorted into a lump category involving suggestions on policy written in all caps with emphasis delivered via extra punctuation and highlighter pens. It's been a few years since I read the book, so have forgotten most of the plot, but I do remember laughing out loud while reading this one. I'll have to read it again if I can find my copy!
October 20, 2008
Millet goes for satire and misses, which is like the worst thing in the world but less funny. She lands on ridicule. oof.
maybe it would be different if her protagonist was firmly entrenched in the bush family and/or support structure (lackeys, talking heads, etc.) but instead she chooses to spoof a scrap of trailer trash, which got old like the second people started doing it.
maybe it would be different if her protagonist was firmly entrenched in the bush family and/or support structure (lackeys, talking heads, etc.) but instead she chooses to spoof a scrap of trailer trash, which got old like the second people started doing it.
August 16, 2010
an absolutely hysterical take of the senior Bush presidency, from the point of view of his stalker, a stereotypical trailer-park trash overweight woman who is an ex-con. Dark and cynical, I laughed myself silly reading this, and often had to read excepts to random people because I found them so hilarious.
May 26, 2020
I loved Lydia Millet's book, Pills and Starships, so I was very excited to jump into another book of hers, especially one that was political satire. Unfortunately, I had a hard time keeping focus (whether that the book or the pandemic is anyone's guess), and it was extremely difficult to find anything redeemable about the main character. The concept of the book (and the short length) kept me reading, but past that it was really hard to keep going at times. If I had more objective knowledge of Bush senior's presidency, this book may have been more enjoyable, but that might be a cop out in this case as policy/events seemed to be just thrown in and the primary focus on G.B. (as Rosemary would reference him) was to feed Rosemary's obsession.
May 9, 2021
I feared that this novel would be incredibly dated, but, no, it was highly enjoyable. Rosemary is an entertaining fuck-up of a protagonist: a shrewd criminal who fleeces nearly anyone she meets while feeding her mind to 41's ravings. Millet was ahead of the curve about the dangers of FOX News with this book. But despite the title, she is never dogmatic in her observations. So this early title probably deserves a lot more props.
June 14, 2018
This book just falls short on so many levels. I’m glad to be finally weeding it from my collection.
October 12, 2022
Amusingly odd. Held up over time? Historical romance 😂
January 5, 2023
Soooo funny literally made me laugh out loud a couple of times. And I guessed correctly that the author was a Sagittarius
April 30, 2023
Very well done.
Read
February 13, 2025I honestly chose this book based solely on the title.
A review of George Bush presidency (#41) seen through the eyes of an obsessive fanatic.
Sarcastic and humorous.
A review of George Bush presidency (#41) seen through the eyes of an obsessive fanatic.
Sarcastic and humorous.
perhaps
September 22, 2025This came up in a NoveList search and I had an involuntary laughing fit at the front desk of my library.
February 10, 2015
2.5 stars
Based on the title, I thought it would be funnier. I must say, though, I did enjoy going through the main events of GB Sr.'s presidency and seeing the lessons an individual might derive from his words and actions. Granted, it's the interpretation of a crazy lady, but it's very telling in its own way.
I was too young at the time to understand what was going on and IT BLOWS MY MIND how history was able to repeat itself in the presidency of GB, the younger. This book was written in 2000, so the author couldn't have known that the same tactics would be used again. But through quotes at the beginning of each chapter, a lot of the hypocrisy and true colors of GB's presidency comes through. At one point, it is revealed that, in reaction to a poll that reported Americans were against going to war unless we were under threat of nuclear war, 41's Chickenhawks (and a media blitz led by Dick Cheney) shifted gears in their arguments for war. Instead of the reasons they had been giving (to protect oil interests, to protect Saudia Arabia from Iraqi aggression), they started talking about how Iraq *could* gain nuclear capability at some point in the future. So could Iceland, but whatevs. At the time, the Chickenhawks knew that Iraq was still decades away from having the technology, but who cares? They got their war.
Cheney and his WMDs. The man sure knows what buttons to press to get his way.
But I digress...
Ultimately, it was an enjoyable read and thankfully very short.
Based on the title, I thought it would be funnier. I must say, though, I did enjoy going through the main events of GB Sr.'s presidency and seeing the lessons an individual might derive from his words and actions. Granted, it's the interpretation of a crazy lady, but it's very telling in its own way.
I was too young at the time to understand what was going on and IT BLOWS MY MIND how history was able to repeat itself in the presidency of GB, the younger. This book was written in 2000, so the author couldn't have known that the same tactics would be used again. But through quotes at the beginning of each chapter, a lot of the hypocrisy and true colors of GB's presidency comes through. At one point, it is revealed that, in reaction to a poll that reported Americans were against going to war unless we were under threat of nuclear war, 41's Chickenhawks (and a media blitz led by Dick Cheney) shifted gears in their arguments for war. Instead of the reasons they had been giving (to protect oil interests, to protect Saudia Arabia from Iraqi aggression), they started talking about how Iraq *could* gain nuclear capability at some point in the future. So could Iceland, but whatevs. At the time, the Chickenhawks knew that Iraq was still decades away from having the technology, but who cares? They got their war.
Cheney and his WMDs. The man sure knows what buttons to press to get his way.
But I digress...
Ultimately, it was an enjoyable read and thankfully very short.
July 5, 2016
A well written inventive tale of the named U.S. President as seen by an erstwhile, down-on-her-luck, fan, filled with amusing tales peppered with references and reactions to the words and actions of Bush I. One would hope for a follow up on Clinton, and Bush II, but alas, it would likely be too painful.
Helped me relive the Bush I years, those wonderful days of my early adulthood when it slowly began to dawn on me that the people in charge were no smarter than I was. American self-satisfaction was growing in leaps and bounds as walls fell, governments collapsed, Chinese students challenged Red Army tanks and the free market smurfs began high-fiving each other in formerly hallowed halls of academia. The Gulf War was a turning point of sorts, a line we crossed without knowing, giddy as we were on the gaseous fumes of free market hot house flowers, with our free trade treaties and impending globalization. Even the EU was excited as never before about the market and it looked as though there was no place to go but up. But like the dream of lighter than air transatlantic travel, we were cruising for a bruising. Oh free markets, is there anything you can’t cure? Oh, money, is there any problem you can’t solve? Any target you cannot hit, any idea you cannot assimilate?
The answer was of course, yes. Yes, plenty. But we were not to realize this for a generation.
Helped me relive the Bush I years, those wonderful days of my early adulthood when it slowly began to dawn on me that the people in charge were no smarter than I was. American self-satisfaction was growing in leaps and bounds as walls fell, governments collapsed, Chinese students challenged Red Army tanks and the free market smurfs began high-fiving each other in formerly hallowed halls of academia. The Gulf War was a turning point of sorts, a line we crossed without knowing, giddy as we were on the gaseous fumes of free market hot house flowers, with our free trade treaties and impending globalization. Even the EU was excited as never before about the market and it looked as though there was no place to go but up. But like the dream of lighter than air transatlantic travel, we were cruising for a bruising. Oh free markets, is there anything you can’t cure? Oh, money, is there any problem you can’t solve? Any target you cannot hit, any idea you cannot assimilate?
The answer was of course, yes. Yes, plenty. But we were not to realize this for a generation.
June 3, 2012
I will never look at "G.B" the same.
Lydia Millet has put together a highly amusing story with an entertaining (though scary) cast. Rosemary is an ex-con with no luck, a heavy drinking habit, and an obsession with geriatric men. Her boyfriend is a crotchety veteran with a big house and a cocaine habit to match, and though this is the part where I normally would make an Anna Nicole Smith reference, our Rosemary deserves better. I don't think she got with Russell because of his money and obvious proximity to death. No, as part of the "L.B.," I think this woman has a serious problem -- she is uncontrollably attracted to older... much older... men. Including, George H.W. Bush.
Through Rosemary's growing devotion to G.B. and rabid attention to all things political, Millet makes some interesting points about America's policies and programs under President No. 41. I wish Millet had gone into a little more detail about those political observations, but I suppose that kind of unabashed commentary would've been too much for this short trip into the heart and soul of America's "Dark Prince of Love."
Perhaps she'll do that in her next book, "George Bush, Son of the Dark Prince of Love"?
Lydia Millet has put together a highly amusing story with an entertaining (though scary) cast. Rosemary is an ex-con with no luck, a heavy drinking habit, and an obsession with geriatric men. Her boyfriend is a crotchety veteran with a big house and a cocaine habit to match, and though this is the part where I normally would make an Anna Nicole Smith reference, our Rosemary deserves better. I don't think she got with Russell because of his money and obvious proximity to death. No, as part of the "L.B.," I think this woman has a serious problem -- she is uncontrollably attracted to older... much older... men. Including, George H.W. Bush.
Through Rosemary's growing devotion to G.B. and rabid attention to all things political, Millet makes some interesting points about America's policies and programs under President No. 41. I wish Millet had gone into a little more detail about those political observations, but I suppose that kind of unabashed commentary would've been too much for this short trip into the heart and soul of America's "Dark Prince of Love."
Perhaps she'll do that in her next book, "George Bush, Son of the Dark Prince of Love"?
September 10, 2008
This is an absolutely ridiculous tale of an obese woman recently released from prison who becomes obsessed with "G.B." She creates a shrine to G.B. in her elderly boyfriend’s basement, talks to him through the television, and eventually moves to DC, so that they can finally be together. If this storyline sounds a little off the wall, it definitely is, but it’s good fun too. Just don’t expect it to be any great political satire. It’s just a quick read that’ll definitely make you laugh.
July 26, 2011
The character descriptions were fantastic, their interactions realistic, hilarious, depressing. The more I read about George Bush, though, the less I liked the book. I feel like the author might have used any president Americans frequently mock. Rosemary could have been obsessed with anyone, anything, and I would have still like her and her relationships with Russki, Apache, and the ex-cons the best.
August 27, 2009
This was an odd book for me. As much as I love satire, the very promising and hilarious book title didn't quite deliver mostly because the protagonist irked me--a sociopath with mommy and daddy issuse. That said, there were some funny moments and somehow the last several chapters made up for the okay, but not great, chapters that preceded them.
Read
November 19, 2009Super dark and hella funny satire of sex, politics, and the cultural oddities that permeated the early-nineties landscape during the reign of Bush, the first and elder. Protagonist is out-of-her-mind and, yet, tends to make a whole lot of sense against the chaotic backdrop of her lfie.
April 26, 2013
This book is so funny: high schtick, much unlike the others.
The sly point this book seems to make is that a citizen who models her own actions on the actions of a world leader would be a cunning, erratic sociopath. It’s as entertaining as it sounds.
The sly point this book seems to make is that a citizen who models her own actions on the actions of a world leader would be a cunning, erratic sociopath. It’s as entertaining as it sounds.
have-not-read
July 23, 2013Mad But Magic YA Blog
The Goodreads summary tells me this book is “Written with razor-sharp satiric wit and packed with wry observations of our times.” I find that hard to believe.
The Goodreads summary tells me this book is “Written with razor-sharp satiric wit and packed with wry observations of our times.” I find that hard to believe.
December 31, 2007
Hilarious! Woman imagines that President George H.W. Bush communicates with her via secretly encoded messages on TV.
March 3, 2008
Was hoping for a decent satire with insightful commentary, but it was very boring, didn't really get to the depth of anything and wasn't that funny.
March 28, 2009
Hilarious!!!!!!!!
May 12, 2010
This book is amazing.
April 10, 2010
Hilarious, sarcastic tale of a disturbed woman with nothing going for her, who becomes fixated on the 41st President. A VERY funny way of disagreeing with George Bush's policies. Ha-Ha!
December 6, 2010
Hilarious! I have never read anything like this--and am now on a quest for the next Lydia Millet to add to my stack!
July 26, 2011
Tragic, funny, outrageous and more the American story than most of the other ones i've read. You have to read it to believe it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews