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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