The Coup: A Novel [Hardcover]

Jamie Malanowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 17, 2007

A savagely funny and knowing political satire about a vice president with an irresistible itch to move up a notch.
Godwin Pope, the current vice president of the United States, is bored out of his skull. The one-time software billionaire and hyperconfident alpha male has been reduced to the most empty tasks while the administration of President Jack Mahone sinks lower and lower in the polls with every gaffe and self-generated fiasco. Into his orbit swings Maggie Newbold, the sexy fallen-star journalist with a bad habit of sleeping with her sources, who's on a rehabilitation tour with Newsbreak magazine. Pope sees in Maggie the instrument of his salvation, and he sets into motion a plot of incredible subtlety (and, he believes, untraceability) whereby the Mahone administration will be so tarred by scandal that even though the president didn't actually do anything, he'll have no choice but to resign. Leaving the chair in the Oval Office vacant for Pope's ascension, just as he deserves. Drawing on our current political climate (the incestuous relationship between the press and the politicians, government agendas driven by scandal and spin, raging ambition and toxic competition at the highest levels) while telling an unforgettable and ingeniously plotted story, The Coup is deliciously cynical, unsurpassingly witty—and dismayingly believable.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this sly Washington satire, the second novel from Playboy managing editor Malanowski (Mr. Stupid Goes to Washington), a scheming U.S. vice president sets out to dethrone the president. After four years in the Senate, Godwin Pope, a rich and handsome Princeton grad, decides to run for president against the incumbent, Jack Mahone, a slick, folksy former Louisiana governor who crushes him in a primary debate. In a surprise move, Jack asks Godwin to be his running mate and Godwin accepts. Soon after their victory, Godwin becomes bored and covets the top job for himself. Enter Irene Kim, a comely trade mission rep (spy?!) from China, who Godwin suspects could snare Jack in a sex scandal of impeachment proportions. The flirtatious fly in the ointment is Newsbreak journalist Maggie Newbold, a disgraced Pulitzer Prize winner struggling to expose—or embrace—Godwin, a brilliant manipulator who presents a delicious paradoxical choice to Maggie at novel's end. Malanowski's portrait of a master political double-dealer is as entertaining as it is scary. (July)
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Review

Advance Praise for The Coup


“Jamie Malanowski has written a biting and hilarious satire of the Journalistic-Political Scandal Complex. A hapless president and a hooker. An evil, conniving vice president, and a journalist horny for her next big scoop. They fall in and out of power while they fall in and out of bed. Where does Malanowski come up with this stuff?”

—Paul Begala, contributor to CNN’s The Situation Room and author of Is Our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (July 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385520484
• ISBN-13: 978-0385520485
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,674,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a writer, an editor, and a teacher. I've published two novels (The Coup, Mr. Stupid Goes to Washington), co-written an Off-Broadway play (Loose Lips, with Kurt Andersen and Lisa Birnbach), and written an HBO Movie (Pentagon Wars, starring Kelsey Grammer). I've had a long career writing and editing for magazines. I was on the original staff of Spy, where I worked for seven years, mostly as National Editor. I've also been an editor at Time, Esquire and Playboy. My current project is writing a blog about the Civil War (we're about to mark its 150th anniversary), which The New York Times will begin publishing in November (nytimes.com). I live in Westchester County NY with my wife, Ginny, and my beautiful daughters Maria and Cara.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as satire gets., October 8, 2007

By 

Rebecca Lavoie (NH, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Coup: A Novel (Hardcover)

What Malanowski is able to accomplish with The Coup is rare. He gives the reader an insider's view in to the broad scope of D.C. arenas where deals are made, and it feels strangely authentic, even though the prose is so tight as to provide almost no exposition at all.
I loved this book. It's sarcastic, slick, scary, and even a little romantic. A LOT better than your average airplane read, this book is a must-buy if you love politics, satire, and snappy and smart writing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious but Sobering, August 21, 2007

By 

Charles Rowe (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Coup: A Novel (Hardcover)

I agree with the previous reviewers who note that, while this is a biting and funny political satire, Malanowski's imagined bloodless coup doesn't seem so farfetched. In fact, he makes the gaslighting sound easy. The Coup is seamless, and very entertaining. I think it works especially well because Malanowski gets the details right.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well timed political satire, August 9, 2007

By 

Paul Lindstrom (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Coup: A Novel (Hardcover)

The advent of the current political season brings questions of the lengths that candidates are willing to go and the compromises they will make to achieve their ends. Jamie Malanowski has written an intricately plotted, all too believable story that moves quickly along catching the reader up in the Vice-Presidents schemes. It never, however, loses sight of the fact that it is a satire and the humour is both biting and top-notch. The Coup is an intelligent and fun book. Definitely recommended.