Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88194 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 800 pages

Review
`He brings hot political topics into fiction with a novel about a US primary race'
--Sunday Times

Morning Star
'a slick, insightful and addictive thriller.'

Literary Review
'An absorbing, angry, sad book about the death of democracy...as practised are accelerating America's decline.'

Customer Reviews

Truly excellent
This book was so much better than I was expecting. I love American political thrillers, but have recently been a little disappointed with many of the recent examples on this genre. So, with great expectation, and some wariness, I tried this out.

It is, put simply, one of the best books I've ever read. I'm a PhD student, studying US politics, and I found that all of Patterson's arguments (from both sides of the political spectrum, though Republicans are the main party in this novel) were considered and eloquently put. Rarely did he ever make his more eccentric characters seem completely unlikely or ludicrous.

The pacing is superb, never allowing things to be dragged down by extraneous details. The novel is very lean as a result, and it's almost impossible to put this down (I kept reading until 3am to get it finished). I've since ordered his other political series, starring President Kilcannon (I think that's his name, anyway, it hasn't arrived from Amazon, yet).

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in politics and also anyone interested in reading very high quality fiction. You won't regret it.

Racing to the White House
Is there a place for honesty and integrity in American politics? Yes! Only if all the candidates are heavily dosed with sodium pentathol.

But all kidding aside, politics has always been a hotbed for lies, hypocrisy and mudslinging. And in "The Race," Richard North Patterson gives the seemingly impossible a solid, impassioned shot -- the whole idea of a political candidate who actually means (most of) what he says.

Corey Grace is a sexy, kind, charismatic senator from a benighted town in Ohio, whose bright past as a war hero and politician is marred by a chilly divorce, a terrible war incident, and the tragic loss of his baby brother. Now he's one of the frontrunners for the presidency, but up against a religious fanatic, and a kindly but dim senator being manipulated by a political mastermind.

What's more, Corey has begun dating an African-American liberal actress, which has divided potential voters -- even after he saves his opponent from Al Qaeda assassins. Now his honesty is weighed against a politician's need to butter up his voters -- and he must fight his creepy opponents without selling his integrity, or betraying his new love.

You have to hand it to Patterson -- he really gives it a lot of passion and intensity, and it's pretty clear he's done his homework about the putrescent morass that is modern politics. That includes dealing with the touchy issues of our time -- including stem cell research, racism and war -- by trying to show both sides. Admittedly, not always equally.

The book itself is a dense, unwinding string of political battles, each tipping off a reaction in the voters and in other politicians. It's an elaborate story, full of unexpected twists, and a lot of them come from nothing more than an honest speech or a new strategy. It takes a lot of literary skill and atmosphere to make a simple speech suspenseful, but Patterson does manage it.

Do be warned: like any political book, this has a slant. Patterson does work hard to show both sides of debates like religion, stem cell research, et cetera. But he tends to paint the voting public in too extreme colours, with few of the many "in between" shades of grey. And Democrats are pretty much... MIA altogether, save the equally extreme Lexie.

Corey is a fairly solid lead character -- he has his flaws, his tragedies, his mistakes and his personal ghosts. His problem is that he seems, from the start, almost too tailor-made to be the perfect bipartisan politician, making him seem a bit too perfect. And sometimes credibility is stretched to keep him in the game -- Al Qaeda just happens to show up then to make him look heroic?

None of the other characters are really likeable... instead, they are almost frighteningly realistic, from the easily-manipulated politicians to the cold spin doctors, religious zealots to the hard-boiled liberal actress. It's hard not to read some real-life people into these characters, but they gradually grow personas of their own by the finale.

"The Race" has some stumbling blocks on the way to political -- and personal -- but despite a few flaws, Patterson's latest is a solid, intricate political thriller.

Honesty? It's not on our policy list.
Senator Corey Grace was raised in Ohio and flew a US Air Force combat fighter. Almost inevitably, that makes him a Republican and a Presidential hopeful. A few impediments stand in his way. He's divorced, hardly a novelty in the 21st Century, but he's currently dating an African-American actress, Lexie Hart. There was a younger brother, Clay, dead in disturbing circumstances during his first year as a cadet at the Air Force Academy. As a final, almost insurmountable obstacle in US politics, Corey struggles hard to be honest. Given the power of the Republican Party's election machine, that probably is the biggest challenge Corey faces.

In this fast-paced and revealing novel, Patterson pits a caring, almost crusading, young senator against the forces of establishment politics and the passions of Protestantism. For there is a new element every presidential hopeful in the US must contend with - the Christian convinced that the US is under the special attention of a deity and requires a scourging to cleanse it of threats both internal and external. The party establishment is represented here by Rob Marotta, Senator from Pennsylvania whose political life is run by his puppet master, Magnus Price. The Protestant Christian theme is carried by Bob Christy, a crowd-mover who plays many ends to earn himself the role of President-maker.

Patterson builds his characters well as he conveys them through the twisted maze of a US party nomination campaign. Readers must be attentive or they're likely to be lost in the plots, counter-plots and other crosscurrents of political maneuvering. Various hidden pasts are revealed and "family values" are given the traditional exposure required in US politics. Corey struggles to keep the campaign centred on issues, but that's almost a futile hope. "Personal character", so easily impugned, becomes the focus of all the candidates' managers, with salacious revelations keeping the reader's rapt attention to see what happens next.

Two events that would test anyone, an assassination attempt and a "terrorist" attack, provide Gulf War hero Grace with an opportunity to reinforce his stature. Neither is terribly plausible, especially the second, but Patterson is writing for an audience willing to accept such distortions if the conclusion of the book points to a path out of the swamp of fear they now occupy. One interesting element here is that Patterson focuses on the Republican nomination campaign on the assumption that party will inevitably triumph over their Democratic competition. Although Grace expresses disapproval of the sham of the Iraq crusade, he is able to stand above it. The Republican Party, although tarnished by the current administration, remains in the author's mind the steadfast pillar representing US society. Corey Grace is the political messiah who will bring his party out of the wilderness - one way or another. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]