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
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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