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A review by sedeara
Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics by Joe Klein
4.0
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:
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.”