This week's New Republic notes that Laura Bush's favourite passage in literature is The Grand Inquisitor section of The Brothers Karamazov (!) She says: "It's about life, and it's about death, and it's about Christ. I find it really reassuring."

[Here’s a link to the New Republic article, from 05-Feb-01. --JoeClone, 25-Aug-01.]

This seems to me to be a vein worth digging into. Some other proposed not-quite-the idea responses to great literature from the First Lady:

Hamlet: "Certainly it is about a death in the family, which is hard on everyone. But at least there is continuity in the government at the end, which is a comfort."

Romeo and Juliet: "To begin with they were both underage, and he was out very late drinking, probably, and that is just a recipe for trouble. Counselling would have helped. But the families did come together during the funeral, so some good came of it."

Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling: "It is about angst, and suffering, and the desperate need to fling oneself unknowingly over the yawning abyss in absurd ridiculous hope, rather like my husband's tax cut. But it was a good read. I could hardly wait to see how it came out. That Abraham and Isaac were reconciled and had lamb chops for dinner cheered me up enormously."