Customer Reviews

MAN DESTINY

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here is a completely implausible premise we are asked to swallow in that a young congressman, only 30 days in office ends up being nominated at the convention for president! Yeah, right! There is a lot of political money floating around along with conspiracies galore and the requisite beautiful D.C. woman who (of course) is gorgeous and the man who would be president is "madly in love" within days of meeting her. The dialogue is stilted and lacks any human touch, as we are asked to suspend reason. The man does get the presidency in an unprecedented manner when none of the 3 candidates get the amount of electoral votes required and so forth. Still with grit and determination I made myself finish this howler, since I was caught with nothing else to read, but the newspaper. I must say I enjoyed another bit of hilarity upon reading the one other review of this fairy tale! Just because he thought the book reflected his political views he found this book compelling and even wished it were longer!! While I kept wishing it had been given a good editing. Oh, well that's why we all read different books. This one was a real stinker, IMO!! Luckily I had picked it up at a used book store for $1.25, which I guess was a fair price although they had to pay me to take it (just kidding!)

"Man of Destiny" is every political conservative's dream and every political junkie's nightmare. The story centers around policial neophyte Charlie Palmer and his meteoric rise to the presidency of the United States. Through a series of unlikely, but entirely possible circumstances, Charlie, an average "Joe" with definite Libertarian/conservative political views, believes that government is horribly bloated and needs to be radically changed. He also believes that a majority of Americans agree with his conclusions. The unexpected death of his representative opens the door for him to not only be elected to Congress, but to play a pivotal role in his party's convention. His radical leanings capture both the imagination of the country and a wealthy Western busisnessman who bankrolls Charlie's independent run for the presidency. Underneath this "rags to riches" political story are two significant subplots: Charlie's past and the opposition of the two major political parties. While Gross' book was an exciting read, it lacked several things that could have taken it several steps closer to being completely believable. These include: 1. Charlie's interaction with the mainstream media. A political candidate in today's media environment would literally be swamped by the media frenzy. The focus in the book is on a small group of media personalities and their reactions to Charlie. I thought the conflict between Charlie and the media could have really been developed to show the love/hate relationship politicians have with the media. 2. Charlie's relationship with his chief of staff. While mentioned several times, it was never really developed to the point where it could have been a significant part of the story. It almost seemed like it was an afterthought. 3. The lack of character development of most of the major characters. The emphasis of the book is on the political revolution and Charlie's role in that revolution. Not enough space is devoted to really developing the characters and how they think, reason, and feel. I completely enjoyed the book because of its topic and the result. But the book could have been twice as long and, as a result, twice as good. For everyone who is fed up with politics as usual, and dares to dream about what could be, this is a definite read. A solid effort