"K Blows Top" book

 

Peter Carlson has nailed it.  This rollicking account of the first face-to-face meeting of a feared Communist leader and the American people will leave you appalled, informed, and laughing your head off.  Read about Khrushchev's touchy ego and absurdly large plane, his frightening outbursts, and how the Soviet delegation reacted to a Can-Can show featuring male dancers emerging from under the women's skirts--waving women's frilly red underwear.  

 

Read also about "K's" reception in Iowa, where the Premier was transported in a baby blue cadillac, chatted with coeds at Iowa State University, ate his first hot dog (only after it was checked by a Geiger counter),  and communed with Roswell Garst over corn. That is, when Garst was not busy literally fighting off the massive horde of reporters that dogged Khrushchev and his family every step of the way across the country.

 

A great read featuring an amazing and surreal moment in U.S. and Iowa history, this book entertains as well as informs.  Under all its humor, the fear and the distrust that characterized those scary times, still shows through.