Finale

July 13, 2015
In this novel, Mallon (Watergate) fixes his wide-angle historical lens on the presidency of Ronald Reagan, in particular the events leading up to the exposé of the Iran-Contra affair in 1986. As befitting the author’s usual literary mode, Reagan himself is a minor character in his own story. The major characters include such real-life personalities as rising English journalist Christopher Hitchens, the much-married English socialite Pamela Harriman, and would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr. Worked in among these are several fictional characters, including Anders Little, an arms-control expert with a sexual secret; his friend, Anne Macmurray, an anti-nukes advocate; and her dying ex-husband, Peter Cox, a Texas contributor to Republican candidates. And of course, hovering in the background is “tan, rested and ready” Richard Milhouse Nixon in all his tragic Shakespearean glory, ever trying to restore his blackened legacy. Although largely plotless, the novel boasts a telephone book–sized cast of characters and fits them inside a chronicle large enough to encompass the Reagan-era gay revisionism of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and the gossip of Truman Capote’s “La Cote Basque, 1965.” What Mallon does best is dramatize the bizarre ’80s intersection of Hollywood and Washington, D.C., as equal weight is given to Merv Griffin and Eva Gabor as to Pat Buchanan and Jeane Kirkpatrick, creating in the process a crazy, quilted depiction of a contradiction-filled presidential administration.

Starred review from July 15, 2015
Covering a momentous several months in 1986, this is an intriguing, humorous, even catty backstage view of the Reagan presidency from an artisan of the historical novel.Mallon (Watergate, 2012, etc.) picks up the political narrative a couple of years after his previous, Nixon-era novel. Reagan is preparing for his second summit with Gorbachev on nuclear disarmament. His wife, Nancy, who confers with her astrologer about the president's actions and with Merv Griffin on everything else, wields considerable influence in the White House. Also perfectly coiffed and politically muscular is the $100 million widow of Averell Harriman, Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman, whose funding and machinations on the Democratic side expose the complex horse-trading ahead of that year's midterm election. To a four-page list of historical figures, Mallon adds a few fictional ones tied mainly to the Iran-Contra spectacle and Washington's gay insiders-dubbed the Homintern by Christopher Hitchens. The late journalist, a major character here and a subplot unto himself as he pursues the early inklings of Iran-Contra, was the dedicatee of Watergate and is described in this book's acknowledgements as a "beloved friend." The main plot, aside from history itself, concerns a popular president's sudden faltering amid crises abroad and at home. Mallon doesn't go far in plumbing the Reagan enigma that has stumped so many, but he creates revealing moments in the first couple's marriage. Historical fiction at this high level satisfies the appetite for speculation or even titillation through restraint as much as research, and Mallon rarely overdoes it-though he seems to have a weakness for insults, as in this small sample: "Pity anyone near Teddy's Cutty-Sarked breath during the delivery of all those aspirated aitches" (Hitchens on Edward Kennedy); "that little patent-leather martinet" (Nancy on John Tower); "a Faberge egg that talks" (Pat Nixon on Nancy). Mallon's version of history is close enough to fact to revive faded memories, while his imagining of who thought and said what presents some of the coherence and delights of fiction without the excesses of those "what if" rethinks scribbled by Newt Gingrich et al.

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Starred review from July 1, 2015
This most contemporary of Mallon's historically based novels is set amid the American political scene in late 1986. Those who remember the Reagan era will find all the happenings and brouhahas placed before their eyes again, like the War on Drugs, the AIDS crisis, the Reykjavik Summit on nuclear arms control, and the Iran-Contra disaster. All are related from numerous real and fictional characters' viewpoints, from journalist Christopher Hitchensfull of verbal zingersto Jimmy Carter, a craftily disturbed John Hinckley, and a still-influential ex-president Nixon. It takes gumption to fictionalize living people, and Mallon doesn't hold back on Nancy Reagan, a constant worrier who stage-manages her husband on her astrologer's advice. On the opposite side, Pamela Harriman seeks to find the perfect Democratic candidate. An older Anne Macmurray, the heroine from Dewey Defeats Truman (1997), plays a significant role, too. Reagan himself remains inscrutable, realistically so. When former UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick calls him the most impersonally warm man I've ever encountered, she conveys his magnetism while pinning him down as well as anyone can. Despite all the scene-jumping, the transitions are seamless; there's a whirlwind of activity and abundant snappy dialogue. With his customary flair, Mallon has crafted a scrupulously researched novel that gives readers a front-row seat on world-changing eventsa combination that proves irresistible.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2015

Mallon, a longtime master at fictionally realizing history (Watergate), here takes on the "Reagan years," specifically 1986. A few fictional subplots backdrop the main action, wherein a number of historical figures are given voice: Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Christopher Hitchens, even Bette Davis and John Hinckley. Except for Hinckley, the characters are nuanced, not simple pasteups. Take one of the principals, Nancy Reagan: astrology obsessed for sure but also self-aware ("The Gaze" is a ruse), reflective, and genuinely human. Those who absolutely adore or detest her will probably both be disappointed. So it is with the others. The book's centerpiece is the Iceland disarmament summit with Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and the tension is manifest. Readers who didn't experience this time in history--or who aren't familiar with the myriad luminaries who appear here, from Lindy Boggs through Jeanne Kirkpatrick and from Pat Moynihan to Mort Zuckerman--may feel at sea at times. But it's worth it for this well-developed snapshot of an important year. Oh, Reagan himself? He comes across as vaguely charming but unreadable to friend and foe alike. As Kirkpatrick "says" to Nixon: "You're complex, yes, but palpable. Reagan is smoke." VERDICT For all devotees of historical fiction and this time period.--Robert E. Brown, Oswego, NY

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2015

This new book from Mallon, author of the PEN/Faulkner Award finalist Watergate, is set in 1986, as the Cold War seeps away and a host of Soviet dissidents, illegal arms traders, and antinuclear activists brush up against the likes of Margaret Thatcher, Jimmy Carter, Bette Davis (surprise!), and an inscrutable President Ronald Reagan.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.