The Sun King [Paperback]

David Ignatius (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 1999

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius is one of the most highly regarded writers in the capital, an influential journalist and acclaimed novelist with a keen eye for the subtleties of power and politics. In The Sun King, Ignatius has written a love story for our time, a spellbinding portrait of the collision of ambition and sexual desire.
        
Sandy Galvin is a billionaire with a rare talent for taking risks and making people happy. Galvin arrives in a Washington suffering under a cloud of righteous misery and   proceeds to turn the place upside down. He buys the city's most powerful newspaper, The Washington Sun and Tribune, and wields it like a sword, but in his path stands his old Harvard flame, Candace Ridgway, a beautiful and icy journalist known to her colleagues as the Mistress of Fact. Their fateful encounter, tangled in the mysteries of their past, is narrated by David Cantor, an acid-tongued reporter and Jerry Springer devotee who is drawn inexorably into the Sun King's orbit and is transformed by this unpredictable man.
          
In this wise and poignant novel, love is the final frontier for a generation of baby boomers at midlife--still young enough to reach for their dreams but old enough to glimpse the prospect of loss. The Sun King can light up a room, but can he melt the worldly bonds that constrain the Mistress of Fact? In The Sun King, David Ignatius proves with perceptive wit and haunting power that the phrase "Washington love story" isn't an oxymoron.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Washington Post columnist and accomplished spy novelist Ignatius (A Firing Offense) here largely abandons the mechanics of espionage and sets a character study of ambition and intrigue against the workings of a great Washington paper. The Washington Sun and Tribune, is, like the Post, a serious, family-owned business. David Cantor, the novel's cynical narrator, is the editor of Reveal, a debt-ridden society magazine at the other end of the spectrum. Providentially for Cantor, a feature he writes on mysterious new D.C. billionaire Sandy Galvin gives him a new lease on life. Galvin is intent on buying the Sun, and in exchange for some inside information, he promises to make Cantor his lifestyle editor. Cantor and Galvin are both Harvard men, though Galvin never graduated, and their business relationship becomes a friendship shot through with a shared sense of nostalgia and unrealized ambitions. All goes according to plan: Galvin panics the Sun's owners into selling to him, then shakes the place out of its stodgy slumbers with bingo contests and a cable-TV station hook-up. Cantor eventually realizes, however, that Galvin's real aim is to win back his one-time Harvard girlfriend, gorgeous Candace Ridgway, the paper's patrician foreign editor, a woman left with a "cold heart" after the Vietnam-era suicide of her father, then deputy secretary of defense. As Galvin's rise leads to his inevitable fall, Cantor watches from the sidelines, playing Nick Carraway to Galvin's Gatsby. A thoroughly involving narrative with a sharp, satiric edge, Ignatius's contemporary take on the tragic confluence of love, power and ambition is a sophisticated look at the media mystique and the movers and shakers in our nation's capitol. His stylish, fluent prose, anchored with fine atmospheric detail, gives the story texture and momentum. Agent, Raphael Sagalyn. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Having thrilled readers with four action-packed novels (including A Firing Offense), Ignatius now does a neat backflip and thrills his readers with a love story. Publishing mogul Sandy Galvin, a.k.a. the Sun King, arrives in Washington, DC, one day with plans to revive a dying newspaper. He hires David Cantor, a cynical lifestyle writer with a profound appreciation for fluff journalism, and Candace Ridgway, a former flame and scrupulous foreign affairs writer also known as The Mistress of Fact. Shortly, both men are deeply involved with the Mistress, and the threesome spend the rest of the book sparring about love and journalistic ethics. The emotional integrity at the heart of this novel is searingly honest and makes for a wise and satisfying work. For all public libraries.
-ABarbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Random House (August 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812992431
• ISBN-13: 978-0812992434
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #453,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Ignatius, a prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post, has been covering the Middle East and the CIA for more than twenty-five years. His novels include Agents of Innocence, Body of Lies, and The Increment. He lives in Washington, DC.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Graceful, romantic, funny--and impossible to put down, September 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sun King (Hardcover)

Ignatius fans (and I am one) knew that he could render the shadowy world of espionage. But who knew he had a gift for comedy and romance? Sandy Galvin's stewardship of Washington's only major daily is the only Washington satire of recent years that actually outdoes reality. Ignatius's wisecracking narrator skewers the journalism scene with a light-hearted cynicism that would do credit to Evelyn Waugh. And Galvin's courtship of his lost love--and the painful conclusion of his Gatsbyesque quest--progress from romantic fun into a truly poignant depiction of real-life heartache. I read THE SUN KING in one sitting. The book's a winner!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a disturbing tale, July 28, 2000

By 

Pamela Stone - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sun King (Hardcover)

A tale of a tycoon who comes to town to challenge the powers that be and ends up facing his own challenge with the woman he loves.

Sandy Galvin is the Sun King, a billionaire with a talent for taking risks. Galvin arrives in Washington and proceeds to turn the Capital up side down. He buys the city's most powerful newspaper and wields it like a knife. In his way stands his old Harvard flame, Candice Ridgeway a beautiful and icy journalist known around town as the Mistress of Fact. Their encounter is tangled in the mysteries of their past and narrated by David Cantor, who is an acid-tongued reporter, a big Jerry Springer fan, and is drawn into Galvin's life to be transformed by this unpredictable man. Love is the final frontier for a generation of baby boomers, still young enough to reach for their dreams, but old enough to see the prospect of loss. Galvin can light up a room but can he melt the heart or Candice Ridgeway.

This is a disturbing tale of ambition and sexual desire. I consider it of mature theme.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strong, involving, topical, September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sun King (Hardcover)

I had read and thoroughly enjoyed the author's journalism/espionage thriller A Firing Offense, but this is indeed a departure from that. His characters and their interactions do echo those in The Great Gatsby, but not apishly so. David Cantor, the narrator, is actually not nearly as nice a guy as Nick Carraway. In Sandy, the author definitely creates a believable Gatsby for the turn of the century, and Candace makes a creditable high powered woman of our age, as well as an understandably unattainable love object. Mix these characters with all that delicious, I would think none too exaggerated, Washington atmosphere, the author's love/hate relationship with journalism and the media, and his stylish writing and there's enough for a good read. Little did I know I would be emotionally involved enough to feel deeply for the fate of this power couple.