Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #336124 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-30
• Released on: 2007-10-30
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Leaving courtroom thrills behind, Patterson crafts an absorbing and suspenseful account of a dirty run for the Republican presidential nomination. Sen. Corey Grace, a Republican from Ohio, became a public hero during the Gulf War after surviving the crash of his jet and enduring months of captivity and torture. Thirteen years later, he's 43 and one of a national magazine's 50 sexiest men alive. Corey has a real shot at winning his party's nomination-if, as his advisers constantly remind him, he can just rein in his impulsiveness, his party-line crossing votes and his habit of telling the truth. When Corey falls for sexy African-American actress Lexie Hart, who comes to Washington to lobby for stem cell research, Corey's advisers wring their hands. But they soon have more pressing matters to deal with: among the other candidates in the Republican field are evangelist Rev. Bob Christy and Sen. Rob Marotta of Pennsylvania-a man under the de facto control of Machiavellian campaign director Magnus Price, The Darth Vader of American politics. The perfidy and mendacity that follow mesmerize as much as they ring true. (Oct.)
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From Booklist
Patterson's latest absorbing thriller centers on a timely topic, a heated presidential primary. Corey Grace is a war hero turned moderate Republican senator who is considering a run for president. Honest and somewhat unpredictable, he is reluctant to get into a race he knows will be drawn out and ugly. Complicating matters is his burgeoning relationship with Lexie Hart, an African American actress who also happens to be a liberal and a former heroin addict. Once he enters the race, Corey faces two fierce opponents: Rob Marrotta, a senator groomed from infancy for the presidency who is willing to do anything to win the nomination, and Bob Christy, an earnest but unrelenting evangelical. The contest comes down to two hot-button topics: stem-cell research and gay rights, and Corey's views do not match those of his opponents or the most conservative voters in his party. Marrotta's unscrupulous campaign manager makes it his mission to smear both Corey and Bob Christy, bringing the men together in an unexpected way. Initially readers will recognize similarities between actual political figures and Patterson's characters, but once the story starts cooking, the characters step beyond their molds. For anyone fascinated by how American politics works, this is a gripping read. Huntley, Kristine

Review

Customer Reviews

Life imitates art? Time for a good political race novel
This novel is a timely and heady mix of racism, religious opinion, terroristic threats and the presidential political race. In the face of all the factions, can an honest man win the race?

When I read of the candidate sitting in his motel room in Nashua, NH, waiting for the interviews for the primary, it had an eerie feeling of reality, and that feeling progresses through the entire novel, including all the controversies you could imagine. There is plenty of suspense, and diabolical intrigue, some of which is in Candidate Corey Grace's own campaign organization.

Patterson makes a very suspenseful but realistic case in his novel, and I think this is one of the best since "The Manchurian Candidate." Lots of fun and gives you a lot to think about what goes on behind the scenes.

An author on the wane
One of the sadder things in sports is watching a once-great athlete clinging to his career, the glory days long since past. In writing, Richard North Patterson is not quite there yet - and unlike athletes, there's always a better chance at a comeback - but The Race is the latest in a run of several books that shows he's not the novelist he once was.

The Race focuses on the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Senator Corey Grace is a young star in the party, rising to the Senate after being a P.O.W. during the First Gulf War. He is a man of ideals that put him at odds with the party: pro-choice, pro-stem cell research and with assorted other "liberal" views. What's worse, in a party that often capitalizes on racism, he is dating a black actress (adding a second meaning to the title).

Running against Grace is the Senate Majority Leader, Rob Marotta who feels entitled to the nomination due to his service and Fundamentalist Christian televangelist Bob Christy. Marotta actually owes Grace his life, but that won't stop him from any sleazy attempt to get the office. Christy, on the other hand, has views are distinctively extreme, but also has an integrity that will form an unusual bond with Grace.

Despite the standard disclaimer that this is a work of fiction, you can tell that certain characters are stand-ins for real life figures. For example, the unctuous Magnus Price has a rather obvious resemblance to Karl Rove and media magnate Alex Rohr is a thinly veiled Rupert Murdoch.

The big flaw with The Race is common to Patterson's other recent novels: he is more interested in political discussion than in a story. And while I may agree with a lot of Patterson's apparent politics, they should supplement the story, not override it. And despite Grace's nominal party affiliation, he is really closer to a Democrat than a Republican, though a race for the Democratic nomination wouldn't give Patterson a chance to tear into the far right.

In certain ways, Patterson is prescient, with parallels occurring to our real 2008 Presidential race. And even if Patterson is losing his sense of storytelling, he is still a decent writer. A lot of opinion about the book will probably be dictated by the political leanings of the reader, but if you can overlook the slant, you'll find that this book is just average, at best, and another disappointment for those who remember when Patterson wrote good books.

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.