A fresh, engrossing take on the political novel with a striking hero.
A disillusioned ex–Secret Service agent finds himself involved in a long-shot presidential campaign.
In this novel, ambitious Secret Service agent Dan Cahill gets himself exiled to Las Vegas after losing his temper at a congressional hearing. When he leaks a story about diplomatic misconduct two years before his planned retirement, he brings his career to an end. With his newfound free time, Dan reconnects with his daughter, Megan, a college student, and reluctantly tags along when she invites him to a talk by Walter Becker, her favorite professor. When Megan and classmates use the lecture to draft Walter to run for president in the Nevada primary, Dan reluctantly joins in to support his daughter—despite his general opposition to her liberal views and his world-weary dislike of politicians from all parties. Walter decides to run as a single-issue candidate, promoting a Manhattan Project–like strategy for curing cancer, and takes an unconventional approach to campaigning. Walter’s election methodology and Megan's enthusiasm wear away at Dan’s cynicism, as does the arrival of Anna Morales, the young governor of New Mexico who has only a slightly better chance against the dominant Republican in her primary than Walter has against the establishment Democrat. The campaigns endure ups and downs as the election approaches, leading to surprising twists and an outcome that is as much about Dan’s personal growth as it is about the leadership of the United States. Kutler brings an innovative approach to familiar tropes of political fiction—idealistic young activists, an outsider willing to risk it all, a shoestring campaign—making the novel a welcome addition to the genre. The writing is engaging (surrounded by enthusiastic young progressives, Dan “declined the overture from his seat neighbors to participate, just as he would’ve politely declined an invitation to be waterboarded”). While the plot meanders a bit before getting moving (Walter’s first appearance comes nearly a hundred pages in) and there are a few scenes that add color without pushing the story forward, the book as a whole is such an enjoyable and satisfying one that readers are likely to accept its length.
A fresh, engrossing take on the political novel with a striking hero.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
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