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The Running Mate
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Binding: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780553502640
Edition: Unabridged
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN: 0553502646
Label: Random House Audio
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
Number Of Items: 10
Publication Date: 2000-04
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: April 18, 2000
Studio: Random House Audio
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Editorial Review:
Senator Charlie Martin, the slightly John McCain-like war hero of Joe Klein's The Running Mate, thought getting blown up in Vietnam was tough, but presidential politics proves the uglier jungle battlefield. Charlie blows his challenge to the incumbent, Jack Stanton (the delightfully slimy protagonist of Klein's roman à clef about Clinton's 1992 campaign), by refusing to smear Stanton for his affair with his wife's stylist, "the Happy Hairdresser." Then he brushes a campaign worker's breast--by accident--and gets punched on TV by her irate dad. Charlie does, however, revive his career by springing a veteran named Mustafa from a Vietnamese prison, and soon he's on Stanton's shortlist for veep and politicking to get an old war buddy named defense secretary. In this political novel par excellence, skeletons dance out of practically everybody's closet. Charlie's vivid trip back to Vietnam turns up a son he sired in a one-night stand; his wickedly droll, still healthy Southern press secretary is HIV positive; Mustafa has society reentry problems; major politicians turn out to be closet pill heads, boozehounds, or rapists of staffers ("Apparently, she suffered an involuntary loss of her virginity in the Cannon Building"). Even Republicans hoard deadly secrets. And politics isn't about policies, it's about artful Machiavellian maneuvers, backstabbing, and feeding scandals to ignorant, arrogant press know-it-alls. (You can't say Klein lacks chutzpah!) Ornery but honest Charlie finds politics "becoming more noxious and also more sterile as the century staggered home." One politico says, "It's a big game hunt, and we're the game.... The jungle'll be left to pygmies and hyenas."
Klein hails and nails Stanton/Clinton for skillful cynicism: "He was all yak-butter and horseshit," says Charlie. Fans of Primary Colors will love this book's raffish authenticity. But the canvas is vaster--the Vietnam chapter is as evocative as the American ones--the story sprawls Tom Wolfe-ishly, and Klein is not just scoring points, he's a moralist hunting big game. --Tim Appelo
Hailed as "astonishingly powerful" by The New York Times, and "written perfectly" by The Washington Post, Joe Klein's #1 bestseller, Primary Colors, was the most-talked-about political novel of the past century. Now acclaimed journalist and author Joe Klein returns with another brilliant and slyly subversive novel set in the gladiatorial arena he knows so well: politics in modern-day America. U.S. senator Charlie Martin is a hot political property, dashing, honorable, irreverent -- and a decorated Vietnam veteran. The Running Mate follows this brash hero on a wild, exhilarating ride through the minefields of politics as usual. But as Charlie quickly learns, combat is a cakewalk compared with the battles waged by free men in pursuit of glory and power. For Charlie's political star is beginning to wane ... a bid for the presidency ends in failure ... a young campaign volunteer's father decks him -- in front of the cameras ... a well-kept secret from Charlie's Vietnam days is revealed ... and a woman has entered his life -- one who loves him but is appalled by his life's work. Suddenly Charlie must confront the two greatest challenges of his life -- a political opponent who has no scruples and a dazzling, unconventional woman who may force him to choose between love and politics. Charlie's dilemma is one that has come to haunt contemporary American politics: Is it possible to be a good politician and a good man?
From the Trade Paperback edition.
The author of Primary Colors takes the reader deep inside the election process, where one veteran senator faces the dilemma that haunts contemporary politics: Can one man be both a good politician and a good man?
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Not certain if it's a campaign memoir or a romance
Unlike Klein's earlier book Primary Colors, written as "Anonymous", The Running Mate isn't purely a political adventure. Sure, women played a role in the life of Jack Stanton (who makes the occasional apprearance in this semi-sequel) but as minor players.
In an attempt presumably to humanise the main protagonist of The Running Mate, failed Presidential nomination candidate and US Senator Charlie Martin, Klein brings in just one woman - the supposedly alluring Nell.
Some ... Read More
Rating:  - Did not receive my vote
I was given this book to read by a close family member who loved it. I was extremely bored with it. In order to enjoy this book you really need a good understanding of Politics, and each party's view over the years. The author spends a lot of text covering the era of the Vietnam War, which I am not very familiar with, and so half the time I felt completely. The book does get somewhat better towards the end when the key character is in present day, and running for election against a backhanded ... Read More
Rating:  - Sorry. . .just a lousy novel
Joe Klein shot his wad with "Primary Colors" (writing as "Anonymous"). This book is peopled largely with stereotypes and shallowly portrayed, very unsympathetic characters.
As a political novel, it is awful.
As a love story, it is worse.
As modern political commentary, it is banal.
Having grown up on the (admittedly now dated) political novels of Allen Drury, I have a relatively high standard for such forms of fiction. Mr. Klein has a looooong ... Read More
Rating: - Not worth it, in my opinion
I had high hopes with this book. Reading the summary it sounded to me like it had all the necessary elements to be a hit.
I didn't care for any of the characters, and that's not just because they are cut-throat politicians, but because they just didn't seem to me to have any worthwhile attributes.
I didn't even make it to the end of the book!
Rating:  - serio-comic political novel
This novel is a compelling sequel to "Primary Colors" and while similar in some ways, there are also significant differences. For one thing, this novel is placed in the Midwest,perhaps Nebraska, not the South, a significant difference, and there is less emphasis on New York atmospherics than in "Primary Colors", although they are not completely absent. "Primary Colors" is narrated by a black man and there is correspondingly more emphasis on blacks in that novel. Also, there is a torrid love interest ... Read More
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