The Opposition…

O: A Presidential Novel

Anonymous

Why we're reading this: mentioned on show January 26, 2011
[close] mentioned on show January 26, 2011

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Jan 17, 2011 Laura rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Wow...where to start?

First, the writing style was, for the most part, maddeningly passive. Plot developments were summarized rather than allowing the reader to be put in the middle of the action. The plot itself was thin and unexciting -- certainly not substantial enough to carry a 300+ page book. Character development was lacking, and weirdly, the most poorly developed character of all was the supposed protagonist, Cal Regan. You didn't like him. You didn't dislike him. He didn't have much noti Wow...where to start?

First, the writing style was, for the most part, maddeningly passive. Plot developments were summarized rather than allowing the reader to be put in the middle of the action. The plot itself was thin and unexciting -- certainly not substantial enough to carry a 300+ page book. Character development was lacking, and weirdly, the most poorly developed character of all was the supposed protagonist, Cal Regan. You didn't like him. You didn't dislike him. He didn't have much noticeable personality at all, nor much in the way of a back story that would endear him to you. Picture a robot programmed to behave as a campaign manager(well, okay, and have sex every once in awhile), and you have a pretty good idea of how he came across in the book.

Way, way too many pages were taken up with mind-numbingly dull litanies of campaign life and facts of presidential politics. These litanies were passively written and had little or no relevance to the overall story arc. Still more pages were devoted to long, rambling introspections and musings by the various characters, none of which were very interesting or written very engagingly.

I will concede that the last 80 pages or so of the novel were somewhat more readable than the rest of it, mainly because things actually, you know, happened. But even then, multiple aspects of the plot annoyed me. The centerpiece of the action, a minor-ish possible scandal involving the Perfect In Every Way Republican candidate, Tom Morrison, was dull from beginning to end. Other than perhaps waiting for a dramatic plot twist that never came, there was never any real reason to suspect it implicated Morrison in anything much more than failure to properly vet a former employee (and it turned out he wasn't even guilty of that). Really? That was the juiciest campaign scandal the author could come up with?

But I found this plot irritating for reasons beyond that. The book portrayed the pushing of the potential scandal by a Huffington Post...er, Stefani Report reporter as sleazy, totally out of bounds, and unwarranted. The tone was, "How dare anyone even ask questions about such a thing?" But the issue in question wasn't a tawdry personal attack against Morrison or his family. It was a perfectly legitimate question about actions he took or didn't take as CEO of his former company. Yes, it turned out he hadn't done anything wrong, but the exonerating information wasn't something that even a diligent reporter would have been particularly likely to uncover on his/her own. It wasn't as if this information was known and ignored by the Stefani Report in the interest of a more salacious story. So what, exactly, did the young novice journalist do wrong?

And then there was Alex Morrison, the somewhat troubled teenage son of the Republican candidate, and his dad's body man on the campaign. In the middle of a post-debate spin room, Alex physically assaults the Stefani Report reporter. Rather than firing Alex (yes, he's his son, but still an employee, and I'd assume any other campaign worker who did something like that would be fired), issuing an apology, and being thankful that the reporter didn't press charges, Tom Morrison makes excuses for his son and blames the media for the whole incident -- and the media, the O campaign, and apparently the entire country all nod their heads in collective agreement that, no, an 18-year-old who's apparently been deemed mature enough to work on a presidential campaign should surely not be expected to be able to refrain from physically attacking a reporter, and it was all the reporter's fault for saying mean things about his dad. Um...huh?

Finally, the misleading advertising. I'm sure the reported author, Mark Salter from the McCain campaign, has indeed been in a few rooms with Obama, but the billing implies someone who has worked closely with him and knows things about him that only his friends and close associates would know. Somehow I doubt Salter fits into that category. The self-important claim to be "the truth only fiction can tell" makes it even worse, as if Salter would be privy to some exclusive "truths" about Obama. (And it's not even clear what "truth" Salter thinks he's telling. It's apparent that he doesn't like Obama much. He portrays "O" as being whiny, thin-skinned, and disdainful of the American people -- but not as actually evil or corrupt, and even with some redeeming qualities as well. Is Salter's alleged "truth" that gossipy news websites like Huffington Post are bad? If so, he did quite a poor job of making that case, for the reasons mentioned above.)

Anyway, hopefully the slow sales of this book will clue publishers in to the fact that marketing gimmicks are not enough. You also have to have a book that doesn't suck in order to make money. ...more

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