California Sen. Barbara Boxer's debut novel, A Time to Run, is due out this fall. "Boxer has been working on the suspense novel for years, writing it in longhand on flights from California to Washington and back," notes The Associated Press, which quotes Boxer as having said about her book, "I wanted to write a page-turner, but I wanted, at the end of the day, people to learn some things from the book, in a very painless way, of what it's really like."
Barbara Boxer's book
My favorite U.S. senator and my senator, Barbara Boxer, has penned a novel titled A Time to Run, scheduled to be released next month or in November.
I hope it doesn't suck. Novels written by political types usually suck.
Lynne Cheney's lesbian-themed Sisters and Bill O'Reilly's Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder come to mind. (No, I have not read either book. I would not give either Lynne Cheney or Bill O'Reilly a fucking penny nor a minute of my time reading their shit. However, I have heard excerpts from both books read on Air America Radio, and it is clear from the excerpts that trees never would have been felled for such drivel if the books' authors weren't well-known.)
Anyway, here are the descriptions of Boxer's novel from amazon.com:
From Publishers Weekly: The three-term senator from California -- newly and handily re-elected in 2004 -- offers a debut novel to relate "a story I had long wanted to tell."
Aspiring political activist Josh Fischer and aspiring journalist Greg Hunter are best friends and roommates at 1970s Berkeley; Josh is dark, sensitive and liberal; Greg is blond, gregarious and leans right.
When the two meet Ellen Downey, a petite redhead with a steely determination to make the world a better place, romantic entanglements ensue, with Ellen ultimately marrying Josh shortly after graduation.
Josh runs for political office, Ellen heads a mentoring program for at-risk kids, and Greg, married to a wealthy socialite but still in the picture, works as a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle.
When Josh dies during his Senate campaign, Ellen assumes his candidacy and scores an upset victory; the book opens on the eve of a vote regarding a controversial Supreme Court nominee, with Greg appearing in Ellen's office holding incendiary documents that could alter the course of history -- or level her career.
All of this is by-the-numbers stuff, but Boxer brings been-there nuance to the backbiting, hazardous personal disclosures and naked power mongering of California and Washington politics.
Book Description: Written with a true insider's perspective, A Time to Run is the remarkable literary debut of United States Senator Barbara Boxer, one of the most admired and respected figures on the political scene.
Senator Boxer, writing with Mary-Rose Hayes, tells an exciting tale of friendship and betrayal, idealism and pragmatism, infighting and public spin.
The novel follows Ellen Fines from her days as a college student through romantic entanglements and a difficult marriage to a rising political star.
When her husband is killed in a car accident during his campaign for the Senate, Ellen assumes his candidacy and achieves an upset victory over a political machine.
On the eve of a crucial vote, past and public worlds collide when Ellen's former lover, now a journalist with strong right-wing connections, gives her sensitive documents that could either make or break her career.
From hideaways deep under the U.S. Capitol to wealthy southern California ranches to the political unrest on the streets of Berkeley, A Time to Run is a great read, and a fascinating, up-close story of power and trust.
I don't know... I already wonder if Boxer has reinforced the idea that the only way a woman can rise to political power is if her politician husband bites the dust. (No, that is not the way that Boxer rose to political power -- she earned her place* -- and that's part of the reason I like her.)
Anyway, I think I'd rather that Boxer had written an autobiographical nonfiction book, but I'll see what the reviewers say about A Time to Run.
*In November 2004 Boxer received the highest number of votes ever cast for a U.S. senator -- more than 6.9 million. Behind John Kerry and George W. Bush, she received the third-highest number of votes in the United States on Election Day. She's my pick for the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate.
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