Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics [Hardcover]

Anonymous (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 16, 1996

A brilliant and penetrating look behind the scenes of modern American politics, Primary Colors is a funny, wise, and dramatic story with characters and events that resemble some familiar, real-life figures. When a former congressional aide becomes part of the staff of the governor of a small Southern state, he watches in horror, admiration, and amazement, as the governor mixes calculation and sincerity in his not-so-above-board campaign for the presidency.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The famous -- or infamous -- roman a clef about the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign. You've read the hype; now read the book.

Primary Colors has its rich rewards as a savvy insider's look at life on the stump. But it travels far beyond mere gossip and expose and discovers a convincing world of its own, peopled by smart cookies, nutcases, and wheeler-dealers, whose public and private lives illuminate each other -- sometimes by casting dark shadows. This story spans the novelistic spectrum from bedroom farce to high moral drama, and it paints a picture of the political state of the nation so vivid and authentic that one finds in it the deepest kind of truth -- the kind of truth that only fiction can tell.

From Publishers Weekly

The circumstances behind this crackling, highly perceptive study of a presidential campaign that remarkably resembles Bill Clinton's are bizarre. We are assured that not even its publisher, Harold Evans, who signed the book, or its editor knows the identity of the author. A third party, independent of both the publisher and the author's agent, verified his (or her) credentials and oversaw the contract signing. All this has naturally led to the assumption that the author may be someone highly placed in Washington, possibly even within the Clinton Administration; the intimate knowledge of Washington folkways the narrative exhibits seems to bear that out. On the other hand, the literary sophistication on display-the shaping of the story, the characterizations, the atmosphere, the dialogue-is so considerable it seems a professional writer must be at work. But while the mystery may help galvanize sales, it does not affect the quality of the book, which stands as a definitive political novel for these uneasy times-a novel that's knowing about the easy abuse of sincerity, the overblown role of the media (all reporters are "scorps," short for scorpions), the readiness to confuse means with ends. Henry Burton, the narrator, is a bright, youngish black man who rises quickly to a key position on the presidential primary campaign staff of Jack Stanton, governor of a small Southern state. Stanton is a brilliant portrait of a born politician, a man at once deeply calculating and genuinely spontaneous in his human reactions; his wife, Susan, a smart lawyer, despises his louche sexual adventuring but is driven by her own demons. Around them revolves a superbly observed staff, a mixture of deep cynicism, muddled idealism and, in the person of Libby, a ghost from Stanton's past who is at once explosively funny and tragic, a compulsive seeker of the truth. Stanton's fortunes fluctuate wildly in the campaign as he slogs through New Hampshire, endures a drubbing in New York (where a governor not unlike Mario Cuomo decided not to run) and seems to cause a heart attack in a buttoned-down rival in Florida. This inspires the entry of a mystery candidate with a magic touch, who turns out, in one of the novel's few overplotted passages, to have his own complex problems; the resolution, however, strikes just the right uneasily ambiguous note. Throughout the book, the attention to physical and emotional detail in the draining political process, the sparkling intelligence and-through the use of Henry as hero-the unusual empathy with which a range of African Americans are portrayed suggest a very considerable new novelist.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 366 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (January 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679448594
• ISBN-13: 978-0679448594
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #413,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To Bill, or Not Too Bill?, January 1, 2003

By 

E. Callaway (Grand Rapids, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Primary Colors (Hardcover)

This is easily one of the finest pieces of literature I have ever read. Whether or not it is an account of Bill Clinton's road to the White House is irrelevant, the story is amazing. I read this book twice because, to this day, I wonder what the main character, "Henry Burton" thought of "the Candidate."

"The Candidate," Jack Stanton, was the enigmatic southern governor, "of a state no one has heard of," who happened to be running for the presidency. He was a brilliant but flawed man, who truly loved people. He really cared about "folks," as he needed them to survive both politically and just plain physically. He fed off the energy of the people with a charisma that was infectious to all those around him. It had its advantages and disadvantages. The fact that he was wonderful people helped, the fact that he was promiscuous did not.

The characters were so vivid and well told. Richard, the campaign manager, Daisy, the media person, and subsequently Henry's girlfriend, and Libby. . .Who could ever forget Ms. Olivia Holden? She was amazing. The Stantons were amazing too. Susan, the Governor's wife, was so strong and intelligent.

Now, this book could be taken from one of two perspectives. The first is conviction. This book suggests terrible things about the governor and if you are looking for an open attack on "The Candidate," you have got it. The second perspective is to look at it as a book by a staffer who really loved his employer, even though some of his traits were less than admirable. Henry said early on in the book, that he looked too favorably the Governor, and felt he could not do his job as best he could.

Whoever this book is about, whatever it is about, it doesn't matter. It is a great story about a man who, though not perfect, feels the people, and truly wants to help them in an effort to give them a better life.

epc

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cooking Pig Ain't Always 'Bout Barbecues, February 21, 2005

By 

Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Primary Colors (Hardcover)

After starting the 1990s by publishing "Bonfire Of The Vanities," Tom Wolfe wrote an essay decrying the state of fiction, how too many authors wrote convoluted, esoteric novels designed to win elitist approval and be ignored by the masses: Why oh why can't some journalist swoop in and write a novel that's really about life and people we know, like the great Frenchman Zola had?

Joe Klein seemed to notice this, if "Primary Colors," the book he had published under the moniker "Anonymous," is any indication. This was a book taken so directly from life that it became a parlor game figuring out who was who. Sure, Jack Stanton was really our then-president, and his wife Susan was Hillary Clinton, but who was that crazy Libby woman supposed to be? Or the shadowy narrator, Henry Burton?

The buzz gave "Primary Colors" most of its popularity, but one wonders just how interested people are in the book now that Bill Clinton is retired. Probably not much, which is a shame, because "Primary Colors" deserves better than being a '90s time capsule.

If you haven't read "Primary Colors," one thing you need to know about it is it's not a note-by-note recitation of the Clinton road to power. It takes some similar turns, and some prescient ones (Monica was not news when this came out in 1996), and in general Jack and Susan Stanton are recognizably Clintonesque, but there are some liberties taken that make the real First Couple seem like the saintly Carters by comparison. The plot takes some jaw-dropping turns, in a sort of shameless "Desperate Housewives"-way that makes for fun reading.

The other salient thing about the book is that it is a clever satire not of one specific administration but the whole way politics is done in our time, the way passion and practicality come together and threaten to do each other harm. One campaign leader cautions our narrator about getting TB, True Believerism, and "Primary Colors" sells its weary cynicism with sharp humor and pungent observation.

It has the feeling of reality, too. Klein has followed a lot of political campaigns, and invests his narrative with a sense of how things really play out when the candidates aren't in front of the cameras. One staff worker is unhorsed not by anything she says but what she doesn't say, a slight but noticeable pause when talking about another candidate's giving blood that reveals her knowledge about - and discomfort in - the candidate she's working for.

The novel isn't perfect. The main romance isn't really well-defined, there's too much Libby and not enough Richard Jemmons, the crazy cracker Carville stand-in. Klein throws a lot of balls in the air, and doesn't catch all of them, but I think the variety of ideas and atmospheres you get in the space of 500 pages has a lot to do with its readability, and the satisfying sense you have when you are done.

"Primary Colors" reminds me a lot of Tom Wolfe, vibrant, flashy, but well-thought out all the time. Waggish, too; Klein even uses "mau-mau" as a verb. Most important, it's entertainment at its highest level, and something worth remembering long after the rest of the circus has passed us by.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sharp, witty, and wonderful!, May 1, 2000

By 

Dr W. Richards "wmr-uk" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book a few months after it was published, and found it very hard to put down. Never mind working out who all the characters were supposed to be (although with some there wasn't much difficulty!), it was a fascinating insight into the murky world of political campaigning, of the reality that there are no perfect people out there - and if there were, they probably wouldn't want to be president.

It was a novel approach to take the perspective of an idealistic campaigning lawyer drafted in to help with the Stanton bid; someone steeped in the political process and 'how to,' but who had rarely been exposed to the murkier sets of compromises and deals which candidates and their teams engage in.

I loved it, and now I'm waiting for Klein's sequel, The Running Mate, to arrive in paperback.