by Edward I. Koch with William Rauch
The authors might have entitled this political autobiography "Who Is Ed Koch and Why Is He Saying These Terrible Things About Everybody in the Western World?" As mayor of New York, Koch has brought the city back from fiscal calamity, revitalized its government and made a national name for himself. But this book is not merely a chronicle of those achievements. It is, more remarkably, an idiosyncratic collection of Koch's observations on just about everyone he's dealt with in six years as mayor. He describes with relish how he made a Deputy Mayor cry. He accuses one former assistant of being soft on anti-Semitism and another of botching a political campaign. And these are his friends. His words of praise are scarce, his cavils many, but it is perhaps just that unself-conscious brashness that has made him a hit with New Yorkers—both the Democrats and the Republicans nominated him for reelection in 1981. Even at its most outrageous, his book never ceases to be engrossing. And the mayor is no fool. He saves his barbs for subordinates and avowed enemies, accusing now New York governor Mario Cuomo of condoning the spreading of Koch-is-gay rumors when they were opponents in the 1977 mayoral campaign. Both Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale, from whom favors might one day be exacted, come off well. (Simon and Schuster, $17.95)
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