If Men Were Angels: A Novel [Hardcover]

Reed Karaim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999

A searching and powerfully written novel about a dark-horse presidential candidate who seems to be the answer to the hopes of the American voters. Is he, perhaps, too good to be true?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An absorbing political drama about a golden boy presidential candidate and the sympathetic reporter who brings him down, Karaim's debut is certainly timely, and the issues it raises are provocative. The moral lapseAthe "sin"Aof liberal Illinois congressman Thomas Crane is something that 33-year-old Montana-born reporter Cliff O'Connell discovers reluctantly, though breaking the story will gain him entr?e to the privileged Ivy League world of newspaper journalism. Working in Washington, D.C., for a newspaper syndicate based in San Diego, O'Connell is assigned to cover Crane's campaign; his main worry is that his ex-lover, Robin Winter, is on the staff of the Crane camp. But as the campaign catches fire and O'Connell begins to respect Crane, he uncovers parts of the candidate's past overlooked by other reporters, finally unearthing the potential bombshell. Agonizing over whether to run the story, Cliff makes a personal rather than a professional decision because of something Robin saysAand then he must live with the consequences. Karaim, who covered the 1992 Democratic campaign for Knight-Ridder, invests the novel with the authoritative details of nonfiction: observations about the nature of journalism, an insider's view of a political organization in the throes of a presidential race; the behavior of the American public when faced with scandal and celebrity. Karaim's attention to the development of O'Connell's character as he faces a serious moral dilemma elevates the novel from legal thriller to psychological drama. As O'Connell feels the pressure of "desperate bargains struck with ourselves and others," the sword of Damocles that's been hanging over this novel finally falls. Indeed, the foreshadowing here is heavyAthe narrative conceit is that the reader knows the Thomas Crane story, but not the untold tale of the reporter's struggleAbut the writing itself brings to the novel's melancholy intelligence a kind of worldly, journalistic know-how that rescues the novel from an excess of angst.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In the name of truth, journalists pursue every secret, invade every corner, and publish so that the public can know the simple facts and decide the truth for themselves. With this standard firmly in hand, a young reporter follows a distinguished senator who is making a presidential bid. Sharing an interest in Civil War history, the two connect as the campaign unfolds. Soon, though, a niggling inconsistency begins to prey on the reporter's mind. With his feelings complicated by the presence of an ex-lover working as an adviser to the candidate, the reporter teases out a distant fact whose truth is proved by a teenager with a face much like the candidate's own. In his first novel, Karaim delivers a story that is searingly realistic and exquisitely written. A Knight-Ridder journalist who has covered prominent candidates, Karaim reports with laconic veracity about the stress, excitement, and boredom of a campaign. Of the recent crop of Washington novels, this may well be the best. A sure bet for all public libraries.
-ABarbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 311 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393047806
• ISBN-13: 978-0393047806
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,467,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great first book, August 14, 1999

By 

Gary Niemeier (North Dakota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If Men Were Angels: A Novel (Hardcover)

I highly recommend Reed Karaim's suspenseful, complex first novel. While on the most basic level it presents itself as a political thriller, it also offers the careful reader a myriad of subtle riches. Karaim has a poet's ear for language (the audio cassette must be a delight), and a keen eye for pop culture in today's America. His experience in the 1992 presidential campaign helps render the all-too-believable clash between a reporter's implacable search for facts and an ambitious Senator's spin machine. With his easy command of small, yet startling insights that suggest Updike, Karaim has fashioned a densely populated story set on the grand stage that is America. Like a Montana landscape in winter, it gives us the terrible beauty of truth -- and its consequences. It's a winner.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A political thriller, where the thrills are in the writing, March 7, 2000

By 

Charles Slack (CT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: If Men Were Angels: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is an especially instructive book as we head into another major election. Reed Karaim, who has done his time as a journalist on the presidential campaign trail, takes a step back from the action here and offers a literate, important novel that is far greater than the sum of the daily, discordant parts that go into a campaign. This is the world of sound bites, wire dispatches, canned stump speeches and cynical journalists, elevated to the emotional and intellectual level of Greek tragedy. Cliff O'Connell, the reporter-narrator, pursues a potentially career making story, but one that could destroy a worthy candidate and a worthy man. It's a fascinating exploration of ambition, truth, and ethics in the maelstrom, but the real appeal is in Karaim's deft prose. When the idiocies of the daily campaign and its coverage start to get you down, pick up this volume to remember why the process is a noble one, after all.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific story about truth and deceit in a campaign., August 24, 1999

By 

Steve Thomma ([e-mail]) (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: If Men Were Angels: A Novel (Hardcover)

Did George W. Bush do cocaine? Whether you care or not, a presidential campaign once again is becoming a frenzy of speculation and possible scandal over something that may have happened decades earlier in a candidate's personal life. Decisions are made about how much to tell, how much to reveal, how much to hold back. By the candidates, by the reporters who cover them. Their lives can be changed by what they choose, and the nation's life can be affected as well. Want to know what it feels like inside? Read Reed Karaim's book. A compelling and often suspenseful tale, it takes you inside a fictional campaign to watch how these characters of politics and the press dance with one another and around one another and how their histories and values guide their decisions about truth and deceit. One revelation of my own: I am a friend of Karaim's. I am also a political writer, and I know a terrific book when I see one.