Book Review: Watergate: A Novel by Thomas Mallon

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Pantheon (February 21, 2012)

Watergate was one of the darkest moments in modern American history.  What Thomas Mallon does with Watergate: A Novel is making this period of time captivating to say the least.

Through seven characters, Mallon conveys the drama and comedy of the Nixon Administration.  The "third-rate burglarly" has become a "tulmultous, first-rate enteratinment."  It's the polar opposite of Dick but it solves mysterious in Mallon's own way.

The prose at hand manages to keep the audience reading but at the same time, this is one of those books that will either having you turning pages at light speed or struggling to get by page by page.

Maybe it was the content involved, I’m not sure, but this was a book that took me several weeks just to finish.  Take out the network television season coming to a finish and maybe, just maybe, I could have zipped through this one in less than 2 weeks instead of 6 days spread out through the month of May.

This book is not non-fiction nor is it pure fiction.  It is historical fiction.  It’s not the first time Mallon has undergone a project such as this but I am very certain that it won’t be the last.  I feel somewhat confident in that prediction, actually.  Writers write so it would not surprise me, to say the least, if Mallon is starting his next project now…if he hasn’t already done so.

Mallon will be appearing at the Louisville Free Public Library in June to give a lecture about his book along with signing those that are being purchased.  Whether you are going to attend is your choice.

Grade: B