Trudy Hopedale: A Novel [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Jeffrey Frank (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 17, 2007

On the eve of the 2000 election, the charmed life of Washington hostess Trudy Hopedale is quietly falling apart. Her daytime talk show is about to be hijacked by a younger, prettier assistant, and then there is the horrifying novel that her husband has written in secret, which contains some rather troubling implications for a former Foreign Service colleague. And what is her mother-in-law telling everyone?

Trudy's dear friend Donald FrizzÉ has benefited greatly from their friendship. A widely recognized expert on the U.S. vice presidency and a frequent guest on Trudy's program, Donald's latest scholarly pursuit is a highly anticipated biography of Garrett Augustus Hobart, McKinley's VP. Exactly who anticipates this book is hard to say, and soon Donald finds himself dodging the awkward questions of plagiarism and his sexuality, frequently during the same conversation. Amid tides of intrigue and shifting allegiances, this little town's extraordinary inhabitants swim helplessly, and alarmingly, toward their remarkable fates. With a bewitching sense of nostalgia, Jeffrey Frank has written an exquisitely funny, tender, and deeply perceptive novel that vividly invokes the simpler world of only yesterday.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pettiness, backstabbing, social striving and tit-for-tat favors are "the gasoline in this town"-Washington, D.C.-in the third fast-paced, entertaining Beltway send-up from New Yorker editor Frank (following The Columnist and Bad Publicity). As the Clintons make way for the Bushes in 2000-2001, the novel follows Trudy Hopedale, television host of a certain age and D.C. social mainstay, who is fast fading into political and social obsolescence. Trudy's husband, Roger, is a retired career Foreign Service man with a shady past who is working on an embarrassing novel, while "handsome and brilliant" vice-presidential biographer Donald Frizzé is suffering from writer's block. As the gelling Bush administration creates shifting power dynamics and loyalties, readers must read between the lines to gather information from Trudy and Donald, two very different unreliable narrators, each with secrets and ulterior motives of his or her own. Supporting cast members are one-dimensional, and Trudy can seem too petty even for satire, but Frank's lively writing and sharp eye for the story's fourth major character, the "soiled town" that is political Washington, carry the day.
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From Booklist

Washington, D.C., is a town of secrets, and few people have more than Trudy Hopedale. A society hostess with her own TV show, Trudy is married to a former foreign-service officer who has written a scandalous novel that may or may not give away state secrets. In the meantime, Trudy, a former stripper, is having an affair with a senator she finds repulsive. Her close friend Donald has his own problems. Pompous and completely unself-aware, Donald is facing charges of plagiarism and an overly amorous reporter. Donald and Trudy are both on a course of personal destruction, and they tell the story in alternating chapters. It's a major accomplishment that Frank can narrate a story in the voice of a pompous, bad author without seeming pompous himself. Set in the summer of 2000, this gentle satire has a nostalgic affection for a time when Clinton's sex life was seen as the country's biggest problem. Block, Marta Segal

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416549242
• ISBN-13: 978-1416549246
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,163,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DC done to a turn, October 14, 2007

By 

Jill A. Bossert (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trudy Hopedale: A Novel (Hardcover)

Having loved Jeffrey Frank's other books, I started Trudy Hopedale with anticipatory pleasure. And then found I could not put it down. All that's been said about its clear prose, pitch-perfect tone, cracking satire is all there, but what was a special delight was the page-turning need to find out what happens to the hapless characters that inhabit's Frank special Washington. My only regret is that it was over too soon.
Jill Bossert

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars shrewd and funny, August 11, 2007

By 

Former Washingtonian (Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trudy Hopedale: A Novel (Hardcover)

Jeffrey Frank continues to turn out novels about Washington that are shrewd, funny and engaging. Like no one else, he skewers the futile ambitions, the pandering and the rampant egotism that drive the city. His characters are losers all (even the winners), adrift in a treacherous world of false values. Laugh at them you will. But in the end - and this is Frank's real achievement- you end up feeling real sorrow for them and thier misguided lives. A great book!