Review
------
**A New York Times Notable Book of 2015**
The New York Times Book Review
“Mallon is a poised storyteller who traffics in history’s ironic
creases. His novels don’t upend conventional wisdom so much as
remind us that history is a rickety architecture of human
endeavor—that today’s statues commemorate yesterday’s frail and
fumbling mortals . . . Finale represents Mallon’s most audacious
and important work yet . . . Mallon’s portrayal of the first lady
is humane, thoroughly convincing and counts as one of the book’s
triumphs. So is his presentation of Richard Nixon, with whom
“Finale” opens, rather unexpectedly . . . As in his previous
novels, Mallon works deftly with an ensemble cast, employing both
real-life and fictitious characters . . . [a] galloping
narrative.”
Wall Street Journal
“Thomas Mallon has carved an impressive place for himself in the
art of ‘historical fiction,’ a genre whose august forerunners
include Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ and Lampedusa’s ‘The Leopard’ .
. . Mr. Mallon has cautioned, in the author’s note to his earlier
novel ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ (1997): ‘Nouns trump adjectives, and
in the phrase “historical fiction” it is important to remember
which of the two words is which.’ He handles the distinction
expertly, but part of the pleasure of reading him is deciding
when the author is fudging historical fact. ‘Finale’ offers a
certifiable slice of the recent past but teases its readers with
subtle fictionalization . . . It is high-calorie stuff, and Mr.
Mallon handles it with an easy mastery.”
AV Club
“Amid a presidential campaign of stupefying banality, where
candidates compete to say the emptiest sentiment in the least
inful way possible, what a pleasure it is to enter the
rough-and-tumble politics of Thomas Mallon’s historical novels.
The elites of ‘80s government and media didn’t need soundbites:
They had passions….Mallon captures that uncertain tenor of the
times while portraying the complex drama of high-level politics
with real clarity and energy. His take on W. can’t come soon
enough.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Mr. Mallon can twist language like a ….[he] skillfully
interweaves the personal and the political….It’s weirdly
comforting to read a novel in which the characters are so
familiar. Mr. Mallon’s vivid take on this period in American
politics rings true. He effectively gets inside his cahracters’
heads, too.”
Washington Post
“Illustrates the strength of Mallon’s ability to cast even
high-profile politicians as fellow humans….Wicked good, that
Thomas Mallon.”
Christian Science Monitor
“Thomas Mallon takes this human clay and, after adding a dash of
inspired inner dialogue, sculpts characters who embody the folly
and frustration of political power. And, for good measure,
Mallon’s characters never forget the striving required in the
struggle for continued relevancy . . . Mallon has become a master
of such political theater . . . What makes Mallon’s novels so
much fun is the author’s blend of historical exactitude with
imagined reactions and machinations. Many of those machinations
play out in the plausible guise of fictional secondary players .
. . Mallon fits all of these pieces together, combining broad
historical accuracy and fictional verisimilitude with omb.
Characters historical and fictional alike display bonfires of
vanities, and insecurities, galore.”
O Magazine
“Gorbachev, Thatcher, the Gipper himself—the gang’s all here and
ready to party like it’s 1986 in this propulsive and often very
funny novel that portrays political upheaval through the eyes of
some of recent history’s most formidable players.”
Ricochet
“Thomas Mallon may be our generation’s Allen Drury — the top
fictional chronicler of political life in Washington, D.C.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“This interesting and well-written book focuses on 1986—a year
that proved to be Reagan’s annus horribilis . . . At the front of
the book, writer Mallon gives readers a cast-of-characters list.
It teems with 99 characters—all but nine of them real-life
people. And what a real-life variety!"
Dallas Morning News
“Like any historical novelist, Thomas Mallon can ride the fact
train when he wants and jump off when he pleases, and perhaps
only the most rigorous scholar of Reagan’s time will know exactly
where the research ends and the inventing starts. But even
readers who don’t remember the waning days of the Cold War will
find masterful performances, by the author and by his subject,
in Finale.”
Publishers Weekly
“What Mallon does best is dramatize the bizarre ‘80s intersection
of Hollywood and Washington, D.C., as equal weight is given to
Merv Griffin and Eva Gabor as to Pat Buchanan and Jeane
Kirkpatrick, creating in the process a crazy, quilted depiction
of a contradiction-filled presidential administration.”
Kirkus Reviews, (starred review)
“An intriguing, humorous, even catty backstage view of the Reagan
presidency from an artisan of the historical novel . . .
Historical fiction at this high level satisfies the appetite for
speculation or even titillation through restraint as much as
research . . . Mallon’s version of history is close enough to
fact to revive faded memories, while his imagining of who thought
and said what presents some of the coherence and delights of
fiction.”
Booklist, (starred review)
“Despite all the scene-jumping, the transitions are seamless;
there’s a whirlwind of activity and abundant snappy dialogue . .
. Mallon has crafted a scrupulously researched novel that gives
readers a front-row seat on world-changing events—a combination
that proves irresistible.”
Read more ( javascript:void(0) )
About the Author
----------------
THOMAS MALLON is the author of nine novels,
including Henry and Clara, Dewey Defeats Truman, Fellow
Travelers, and Watergate. He is a frequent contributor to The New
Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, and The Atlantic, and in
2011 he received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Harold
D. Vursell Memorial Award for prose style. He has been the
literary editor of GQ and the deputy chairman of the National
Endowment for the Humanities. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Read more ( javascript:void(0) )
See all Editorial Reviews (
/dp/product-description/0307907929/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&isInIframe=0
)
