“The Great Derangement:

A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, & Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire,”By Matt Taibbi(Spiegel & Grau, New York, $24, hardback, 270 pages)

This book has some real gems of insight — wisdom, even.

Check this one out, for example:

“When the government sees its people as the enemy, sooner or later that feeling gets to be mutual. And that’s when the real weirdness begins.” (P.132)

Unfortunately, such valid points are scattered thinly — and with considerably more verbiage — through 270 pages of smarmy, self-righteous, arrogance trying to masquerade as humor.

Don’t get me wrong, I did laugh at some of this.

For example, one of the narratives in this book is an attempt by Taibbi, an avowed atheist, to go undercover in John Hagee Ministries’ Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas.

On one of the first stories in this field, he describes an exorcism of demons on a religious retreat. It seems exorcism is nauseating.

Here’s an excerpt:

“About half the men and three-fourths of the women were writhing around and either play-puking or screaming. Not wanting to be a bad sport, I raised my hand for one of the life coaches to see.

” ‘Need … a … bag,’ I said as he came over.

“He handed me a bag.

” ‘In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of handwriting analysis!’ shouted Fortenberry.

“Handwriting analysis? I jammed the bag over my mouth and started coughing, then went into a very real convulsion of disbelief as I listened to this astounding list, half laughing and half retching.

” ‘In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, I cast out the demon of the intellect!’ Fortenberry continued. ‘In the name of Jesus, I cast out the demon of anal fissures!’

“Cough, cough!”

Yeah, I laughed, too, but all along, I felt a little insulted at the lack of coherence to the entire enterprise.

Taibbi’s day job is as a reporter for The Rolling Stone, so it’s understandable that he wouldn’t be taking time off to put together something that really held together aesthetically, such as, for example, Naomi Wolf’s “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, a Citizen’s Call to Action.” (Read my review HERE.)

But in this truly exciting, ire-inspiring time in America’s history, you’re just lazy if you can’t find a single subject to report, analyze and opine about for a book-length project.

In this case, Taibbi cobbles together riffs on the Religious Right (see above), the 9/11 Truth Movement, the war in Iraq and Congressional corruption.

James Wolcott’s blurb on the front of the bound galley is both telling and deceptive:

“The funniest angry writer and the angriest funny writer since Hunter S. Thompson roared into town.”

Well, Thompson also wrote for The Rolling Stone, wrote books and was a big sports fan (as Taibbi portrays himself in this book), but “The Great Derangement,” doesn’t even measure up to “The Great Shark Hunt” (which disappointed me).

“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” had much more coherence, despite the drug-addled nature of its author, than this piece by Taibbi. It seems to me that Thompson’s short book was as much about exploration of the decadence of the author — admittedly a fascinating guy — as it was about the decadence of America.

Taibbi could benefit from a little introspection, I think, and just a little humility.