I really enjoyed this book because I never could guess where it was going, and because there are several parallels to the 2016 election. I looked the writers style and the pacing kept the book from dragging.

Even though it is oh so dated now (after all Clinton has been and gone) it is gripping and has that tinny sound of political truth. Very well worth reading.

I picked up this book, primarily due to hearing about it when it first came out, during the Clinton presidency. This book tells the story of a Southern governor's primary quest for the U.S. presidency. It makes me more contemptous of politics and more conscious of the differences in what I consider "an ordinary life" and the lives of others.

I'm pretty sure this book wasn't supposed to make me love the Clintons more, but it did.

What a fun read.

3.5 stars

50 states challenge: Arkansas

This book felt like a rush job in many ways -- tons of dialog dumped fast on the page, an ungodly amount of errors in dialog tags (like, did the editor not KNOW how to properly punctuate dialog, or was it just such a mess that getting it readable was heavy lifting enough?) In that respect, it reads like a particularly well-done self-pubbed novel, but Random House has its name attached to all those editing errors.

It was a solid three-star book all the way up through the middle, very male gaze-y throughout. But its themes started to resonate and take on the sheen of truth and meaning in the second half. It was not hard to picture many of the real-life characters that inspired this book as I read; perhaps I should have read it back in my "Clinton phase" to catch more of the real-life parallels and departures. One thing I couldn't ignore was that Bill Clinton in many ways was the democratic forerunner to Donald Trump -- the candidate that could screw up so spectacularly and so often and yet somehow keep ascending anyway. The difference being, of course, that behind all his schmarm and charm Clinton had some competence and a good team.

This quote from the character of Tim Picker, a primary contender running against the Clinton-esque character of Jack Stanton, seems especially prescient almost thirty years later:

“This is really a terrific country, but we get a little crazy sometimes … I guess the craziness is part of what makes us great, it’s part of our freedom. But we have to watch out. We have to be careful about it. There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to continue this–this highwire act, this democracy. If we don’t calm down, it all may just spin out of control. I mean, the world keeps getting more complicated and we keep having to explain it to you in simpler terms, so we can get our little oversimplified explanations on the evening news.”

It's been probably 8 years since I read this book, it's a pretty good read that is an attempt to fictionalize Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. I read it for an American Press & Politics class (POLI SCI 341 at the University of Washington) it's a pretty quick read and can provide a good basis for discussion. Not sure if I'd read it again if it wasn't required of me. :)

Pretty interesting in light of Mrs Clinton now running for president.