Citizen Lazlo!: The Lazlo Letters, Volume 2

HAIL, CITIZEN LAZLO! The history books say that Richard Nixon resigned because of a bungled break-in at the Watergate Hotel, but that isn't so: Tricky Dick had to change addresses to escape the rabid admiration of Lazlo Toth, one of the most authentic lunatics in the history of American letters. That's "letters" as in literature, because Toth is firmly fictional--but also "letters" in the literal sense, too. The flood of correspondence (complete with songs) that drove Nixon from office has been immortalized in Citzen Lazlo, a very strange and very funny book. Nixon wasn't the only target for Toth, a comic creation of Don Novello, himself better known as Saturday Night Live's Father Guido Sarducci. In a prose style all his own--"To President Ford (the best!) ..."--Novello's equal-opportunity annoyance pecked out effusive missives to huge corporations (McDonald's), kitschy pop stars (Sammy Davis Jr.), and the occasional Third World strongman. Quoth Citizen Lazlo to Spain's Francisco Franco: "You are not just a general--you are truly a Generalissimo! Keep it up!"