![]() Newt Gingrich’s oeuvre is distinguished by its sheer quantity and its numbingly repetitive jingoism. Less successful politician-novelists include Barbara Boxer, Gary Hart, and Steve Israel former Congressman Peter King stands out from the pack because of the “ execrable” Islamophobia infecting his work, while former Senator Jim Webb’s military romances are memorable for their deeply weird eroticism. The first president to publish a novel was Jimmy Carter, whose deeply researched Revolutionary War saga, The Hornet’s Nest, was apparently pretty good. ![]() Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton recently announced her own political thriller, co-authored with the mystery writer Louise Penny, about a secretary of state racing to solve a spate of terrorist attacks. Bill Clinton, collaborating with the novelist James Patterson, released The President Is Missing in 2018 (the plot is self-explanatory) the book received middling reviews but positively flew off shelves (a sequel arrived this month). Bored, famous, and perhaps hoping to distract from the inevitable reassessment of their legacies, a couple of ex-presidents and several legislators have tried their hand at fiction over the years. The politician as novelist is certainly nothing new. ![]()
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