O: A Presidential Novel

London: Simon & Schuster, 2011 9780857204950. Hardback. First edition. First printing. Fine/VG. Not price clipped. No annotations or inscriptions. An incisive portrait of people trying to win the presidency in 2012. Among them are: Cal Regan, a rising political star who takes over the president's 2012 re-election campaign after O's veteran campaign chief is forced to resign because of an affair with a teenage prostitute. Maddy Cohan, a dazzling young journalist whose sharp reports for an upstart website are a frequent source of conversation among the political elite, and whose relationship with one of her sources could complicate her career. Walter Lafontaine, one of O's earliest Chicago supporters, who despite being left behind when O went to Washington, yearns for a larger role in his hero's re-election campaign. Tom 'Terrific' Morrison, a one-term governor with a military background, who is emerging as the likely nominee and a formidable opponent. Privately derisive of O, Morrison seeks to run a classic change campaign similar to O's historic march to victory in 2008. Allen Knowles, a wealthy Silicon Valley campaign donor who gives Cal Regan secret information which could be damaging to Morrison's campaign. Meanwhile, O is chafing under the demands of the presidency. His senior aides are running him too hard and, to his irritation, have advised him not to play golf on the weekends. To win re-election, he realizes he may have to adopt political methods he had once denounced. As a work of speculative fiction, the details in O will soon be overtaken by events. But no chronicle is more likely to convey the interior life of the 2012 campaign - the issues they will confront, the compromises they will make, the lengths to which they will go for victory. O is a fascinating, entertaining and darkly intriguing novel for anyone who wants to understand what the president and his team are really thinking. .