Site Meter Reflections on Playboy: Novel review: <i>The Coup</i> by Jamie Malanowski

November 24, 2007

Novel review: The Coup by Jamie Malanowski

Try to imagine a sexy Dick Cheney. It’s not easy, of course, but Playboy managing editor Jamie Malanowski starts with that premise and takes us for a hell of a ride in The Coup, his novel of political satire and intrigue.

The vice president of the United States, protagonist Godwin Pope, does as well with the ladies as any other handsome, famous, socially graceful, independently wealthy bachelor. But after becoming lieutenant to his former political rival, President Jack Mahone, he finds himself promoted to his own level of uselessness. The job takes loads of his time while demanding very little of his intelligence or energy. His boredom makes him dangerous. One day, he notices that Jack’s indiscreet womanizing habit—and the gullibility of everyone else—give him an (underhanded) fighting chance for the presidency after all. Along the way, though, he meets Newsbreak reporter Maggie Newbold, who just might be that rare individual capable of outwitting him—and is clearly another Machiavellian sexpot like himself.

Malanowski’s prose has an agreeable trait in common with that of Stephen King: the vivid characters appear against the technicolor backdrop of American mass culture. With both authors, the effect is the literary equivalent of the best experience you could ever hope to have with 3-D glasses. I take pride in noting that bloggers play an indispensable role in the ecology of information flow that Godwin Pope endeavors to manipulate to his own advantage. The blogger’s art is young; the novelist’s art is old. But even as it flatters practitioners of the younger medium, The Coup reminds me that the novel is not due for retirement any time soon.

Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 12:12 PM

Post a Comment

« Home

Create a Link