I Am America (And So Can You!)

Books are for pantywaists. Or at least that's how "Stephen Colbert", the excitable commentator played to rock-star perfection by Stephen Colbert, viewed them before he became a published author. Now comes the flip-flop, as Mr. Colbert brings the gale-force power of his promotional talents to the hawking of "I Am America (And So Can You!)", a booklike object with his face plastered on its cover. Books are still for pantywaists, but now they're for souvenir-seeking denizens of what is modestly called the Colbert Nation.


The fans are primed because the energy level of Mr. Colbert's television show is soaring. "The Colbert Report" - with a title that's eponymous, the way Mr. Colbert prefers everything - currently beams with irrational exuberance. The show is sharp and innovative in ways that could have followed it to the coffee table, but that hasn't happened. The full-monty Colbert television brilliance doesn't quite make it to the page.

"I Am America (And So Can You!)" certainly has its moments. ("You Can't Hurry Love - but you can certainly take the shortcut. Instead of paging through Match.com, try flipping through the family photo album.") They expand upon the Colbert persona, that of a self-loving loudmouth perched on the famous fine line between stupid and clever. The book is divided into chapters on big topics ("The Family", "Religion", "The Media", "Race") and stresses the exclusive Colbert pedigree of its thoughts on each of them. "You won't find these opinions in any textbook," he says, "unless it happens to be one I've defaced".