Online since 1997 Primary Colors: A Novel of PoliticsClick on a title to get information such as reviews, price comparisons, and availability or to purchase. Search Again-Enter Keyword, Title, or ISBN: |
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Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics |
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780446604277 Edition: Other Printing Edition ISBN: 0446604275 Label: Grand Central Publishing Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 528 Publication Date: November 01, 1996 Publisher: Grand Central Publishing Studio: Grand Central Publishing |
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| Customer Reviews | ||
  - So what's new?I found it boring and depressing. Politics as usual. This is nothing new ya know. The people who have governed this country (heck!, the world) from the getgo have all been like this. It was just kept under wraps better. Too many leakers, climbers and journalists these days. Rating:  - A profile in courageYou gotta love a political pundit like Joe Klein. He didn't even have the decency to attach his name to his book. Wow, that's courage. That's a backbone. Let's see, Klein goes around slamming the Clinton presidency, anonymously. Thanks, Joe. America needs more brave souls like you. Go back to writing your drivel in Time Magazine. Frankly I am surprised you have the courage to attach your name to your columns. Rating:  - Good.I never read the book. My sister needed it for school. She said the books was interesting. Rating: - Better character study than politics or novelThe concept of this book intrigued me: analysis of the first really postmodern president America had, a man who was known for scanning the polls before he had an opinion on any issue, and a candidate whose success was made possible by computer analysis of voter opinion. However, the work itself is quite tedious. There is not enough analysis of characters, and too many scenes explaining the political process. There is too much emphasis on the development of a plot that's tangential to the study of tehse characters, and there is not enough room given to them so that, in breathing, they might exhale what we can then diagnose. I didn't understand why so much emphasis was placed on the narrator, either, since his role was not central. While I read this book without political bias, I was not blown away by its quality as a read or a political novel, but the insight into a certain president's character, and how that made him a success, was intriguing. Not sure if I'd recommend it to anyone except historians at this point. Rating:  - Cooking Pig Ain't Always 'Bout BarbecuesAfter starting the 1990s by publishing "Bonfire Of The Vanities," Tom Wolfe wrote an essay decrying the state of fiction, how too many authors wrote convoluted, esoteric novels designed to win elitist approval and be ignored by the masses: Why oh why can't some journalist swoop in and write a novel that's really about life and people we know, like the great Frenchman Zola had? Joe Klein seemed to notice this, if "Primary Colors," the book he had published under the moniker "Anonymous," is any indication. This was a book taken so directly from life that it became a parlor game figuring out who was who. Sure, Jack Stanton was really our then-president, and his wife Susan was Hillary Clinton, but who was that crazy Libby woman supposed to be? Or the shadowy narrator, Henry Burton? The buzz gave "Primary Colors" most of its popularity, but one wonders just how interested people are in the book now that Bill Clinton is retired. Probably not much, which is a shame, because "Primary Colors" deserves better than being a '90s time capsule. If you haven't read "Primary Colors," one thing you need to know about it is it's not a note-by-note recitation of the Clinton road to power. It takes some similar turns, and some prescient ones (Monica was not news when this came out in 1996), and in general Jack and Susan Stanton are recognizably Clintonesque, but there are some liberties taken that make the real First Couple seem like the saintly Carters by comparison. The plot takes some jaw-dropping turns, in a sort of shameless "Desperate Housewives"-way that makes for fun reading. The other salient thing about the book is that it is a clever satire not of one specific administration but the whole way politics is done in our time, the way passion and practicality come together and threaten to do each other harm. One campaign leader cautions our narrator about getting TB, True Believerism, and "Primary Colors" sells its weary cynicism with sharp humor and pungent observation. It has the feeling of reality, too. Klein has followed a lot of political campaigns, and invests his narrative with a sense of how things really play out when the candidates aren't in front of the cameras. One staff worker is unhorsed not by anything she says but what she doesn't say, a slight but noticeable pause when talking about another candidate's giving blood that reveals her knowledge about - and discomfort in - the candidate she's working for. The novel isn't perfect. The main romance isn't really well-defined, there's too much Libby and not enough Richard Jemmons, the crazy cracker Carville stand-in. Klein throws a lot of balls in the air, and doesn't catch all of them, but I think the variety of ideas and atmospheres you get in the space of 500 pages has a lot to do with its readability, and the satisfying sense you have when you are done. "Primary Colors" reminds me a lot of Tom Wolfe, vibrant, flashy, but well-thought out all the time. Waggish, too; Klein even uses "mau-mau" as a verb. Most important, it's entertainment at its highest level, and something worth remembering long after the rest of the circus has passed us by. |
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