A Perfect World: Words and Paintings from Over 50 of America's Most Powerful People

""I can't really hope for much for a country that is as wackily religious as ours,"" writes Yale English professor Harold Bloom in his somewhat pessimistic contribution to A Perfect World: Words and Paintings from Over 50 of America's Most Powerful People, edited by journalist Debra Trione. Others featured in this small, colorfully illustrated volume include Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, General Norman Schwarzkopf and chemistry Nobel laureate Dudley Herschbach. A wide range of political perspectives are represented, as well as a wide range of artistic skills: stick figures, landscapes of varying legibility and an abstract painting of interlocking arrows representing ""flows of trade, capital, people, ideas and technology throughout the globe"" are among the offerings.