Senator Barbara Boxer's new political-thriller-cum-romance-novel hinges on a Supreme Court nomination battle: the president's selection is a tight-lipped, right-wing ideologue; the Democrats are certain she will "help turn back the clock" on court decisions. With a Republican majority, a confirmation looks all but certain.Please feel free to spoil the story in the comments! It's a thriller, so, what? Sex? Murder? I don't read thrillers so I have no idea what sort of hijinks would make an appropriate, publishable story here.
Boxer, a California Democrat who was elected senator in 1992 after 10 years in the House, is clearly following the dictum to "write what you know." But any novel with even a hint of autobiography is likely to carry a whiff of revenge fantasy. So it is instructive, if not surprising, that the protagonist of Boxer's fictional universe, Ellen Fischer, herself a plucky senator from California, winds up defeating the nomination. How she succeeds is a secret worth keeping - though hopeful Democrats need not rush to the bookstores for strategic advice: Fischer's tactics are too far-fetched to be of much use beyond the hectically imagined pages of "A Time to Run."
Anyway, I note that Boxer has exchanged her job-related surname for another, throwing in the letter "c" so it wouldn't be so face-slammingly obvious. Presumably, the image of fishing (for information?) appealed to her more than the head-punching evoked by her actual name. The nominee's name, by the way, is Frida Hernandez. Imagine the brainstorming that went into selecting that. Most of the book is the story of "Fischer's" life. She has two boyfriends to choose from: Josh Fischer and Greg Hunter. Hunter, eh? Hunter becomes a right-winger, wouldn't you know?
IN THE COMMENTS: The plot is recounted. Don't you want to know what Boxer's fantasy of defeating a Supreme Court nominee looks like?
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Hopefully Boxer's literary career is brief.
Hunter and Fischer? feh.
NYT reviewed this book? Every time you think the Times has hit bottom, they fool you by finding a still lower bottom.
As long as the Boxer character doesn't have "comfort sex" with Brent Few , the gray-haired Senator from MS who lost his family home in a natural disaster or drunken sex with Bernie Franklin, the gay representative from Mass., after sharing too many drinks and late night stories at a Dem party retreat and forgetting themselves for a few regretful moments.
Some people should just stay away from any whiff of autobiographical writing and sex hijinks.
Stephen Colbert was joking about sex in Libby's book last week -- something about little girls and/or animals? Disgusting I know -- especially if the quote Colbert used is true and not dummied up for the show.
Erp: "NYT reviewed this book?" I think they saw is a great raw material for a humorist they chose to review it.
Troy: LOL. And yes, that thing about sex with bears was in Libby's book.
I don't suppose any of her sex partners sports the name Rodham? (hint: think Tony)
Boxer's bodice-ripper? I'm afraid INDC Journal's prospective parodies of it have spoiled it for me.
First part
Second part
Third part
Somehow, a book in which the *exciting climax* is a senator blocking a supreme court nomination doesn't sound too thrilling. Even if it wasn't written by an actual senator, which is pretty boring in itself.
I bet the judge had an abortion.
Jacob: That sounds so perfectly pulpy it must be true. And Hunter's the father, right? And he probably paid for it and forced her into it or something. Is that how these things go?
Do you remember the Saturday Night Live with Steve Forbes, where Forbes had written a novel book about presidential candidate Teve Torbes?
Well, it was a good guess but wrong. I pieced together what happened by using the "Search Inside" feature on amazon.
The allegations weren't abortion, it was child abuse. The documents were faked to try to get Boxer's alter ego to bring the charges to the floor instead of doing a filibuster. As Hernandez said: "my views on abortion, gun control, and environ- mental regulation might have been considered too far right, even by some moderate Republicans. And if, as expected, you led the charge against me-especially if you had launched a filibuster-I was done for." Of course the documents would be proven false, Fischer would be disagreed and Hernandez would get tons o' votes. When Fischer confronts Hernandez with this, she withdraws.
Of course the idea that, politically, moderate Republicans would go along with the filibuster of a woman hispanic is crazy. Also, from what I read, the book is terrible.
Menlo Bob, When you say Rodham, you do mean Hillary's brother and Boxer's erstwhile son-in-law, the putative father of her grandson, don't you?
erp: not only that but the name suggests a man of perverse action.
"Of course the idea that, politically, moderate Republicans would go along with the filibuster of a woman hispanic is crazy."
Conveniently, the new nominee in the end, who's the right kind of nominee in Boxer's terms, is also Hispanic and female. I read the last page of the book just now.
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