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Tuesday, February 5, 2008
What’s your favorite political novel?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s Super Tuesday, and I hope I don’t have to urge anyone living in a primary state to get out there and vote. No excuses.
Since today is all about politics, let’s talk about political novels. Do you have a favorite?
“All the King’s Men” by Robert Penn Warren is, of course, the Alpha and Omega of American political novels. It holds up fantastically well despite the years.
I’m not sure I could say the same for some of the great political novels of the ’60s, like Allen Drury’s “Advise and Consent” and Fletcher Knebel’s “Seven Days in May.” They were both huge best-sellers when they came out, and “Advise and Consent” won the Pulitzer for fiction, but I picked it up again a while back to re-read it and found it very dated, particularly in some of its racial attitudes.
Then there was “Primary Colors” by Anonymous (Joe Klein), the thinly veiled fictionalization of Bill Clinton’s first campaign.
Googling around, I found that some people have a rather expansive view of what consitutes a political novel. I found references to “Atlas Shrugged,” “Catch-22,” “Animal Farm,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Gulliver’s Travels” and “Lord of the Flies.” That’s not what I initially had in mind when I started this entry, but today is a day to let people sound off however they want.
So have at it. What’s your favorite political novel?
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