New York Times Book Review June 3 2018
Books of The Times
Bill Clinton and James Patterson Team Up to Imagine a True Fantasy: Sane Politics
The American presidency comes with "thrilling highs" and "lows lower than a snake'south abdomen." That's what the fictitious President Jonathan Lincoln Duncan thinks to himself early on in "The President Is Missing," a thriller and escapist fairy tale co-written by Bill Clinton and James Patterson.
David Ellis is credited right upwardly front as the person who "stuck with usa through the research, our first and second outlines, and the many, many drafts," and so we know what he did: a lot. Otherwise, the former president appears to have provided inside information about how the job works when a president is paying attention (this novel'due south POTUS reads his presidential daily briefing), done some speechifying and drawn upon his great beloved of thrillers. Patterson does what he does best: deliver cliffhanger endings to short chapters and make the story move.
Both of them seem determined to keep the shrill, biting tone of real politics out of this fantasy. Sure, the words "impeachment" and "witch chase" make cameo appearances. And Duncan's vice president is a woman who thinks she deserved the nomination. Readers may wonder why the authors decide early on to kill off the first lady, who was a brilliant constabulary pupil when she first dazzled Duncan, and why some of her last words were: "Promise me you'll come across someone else, Jonathan. Promise me." Let's only call information technology a setup for the sequel and a dose of creative license. Duncan is also a Special Forces war hero who was waterboarded in Republic of iraq and could have been a baseball star if his injuries hadn't forced him into politics.
Then there we have Duncan'south noble character. Now for the dynamic if somewhat dated plot. President Duncan is in trouble for supposedly having had dealings with terrorists. Piddling do the press or public know that he was trying to avert a crisis, non start ane. He is a sane, sensible president who finds out that this terrorist poses a cyberthreat so horrible that … well, there'south a reason the proper name of the looming internet virus is Dark Ages. In an ordinary thriller, there might be a folio or two outlining what this virus could do, only the Clinton impact feels present in the elaborate caption. The book piles on loads of scary details about what the world would be like if your computer became nothing merely a doorstop and every device in America was brought to a standstill.
President Duncan is much too energetic to tackle all of this while sitting at his desk in the Oval Office. No, he needs to sneak out of the White Firm (see: title), and go visit his wife'south longtime best friend (a fabulous, gorgeous movie star — call back sequel) to have her aid him with a disguise. Then he can roam freely, just similar the action hero all presidents ache to be.
Paradigm
The book as well gives us an assassin who'southward afterwards Duncan, and who visits Ford'due south Theater while she's waiting to take her shot. Sorry, gentlemen. That's really pushing information technology. And Duncan already has a wasting blood disease. He's non going to get popped this early in the story.
Only he does become many opportunities to show himself equally a decent, well-intentioned person in a earth very different from ours. He's stable. America has allies. Those allies are treated steadfastly and courteously, because Duncan knows his existent bug are much closer to dwelling house. There's a traitor in the White House, and the president has gone AWOL, in part, to endeavor to figure out who that is.
Finally, at that place are the Russians. This is the merely summer novel in which you'll observe a president summarily booting the Russian ambassador out of the United States, proverb: "Do non always test me again, Andrei. Oh, and stay out of our elections. Later on I speak tomorrow, you'll have all you can handle to go on rigging your own."
"The President Is Missing" feels similar the event of a stiff collaboration. Clinton and Patterson are a fine match, fifty-fifty if they get this story off to a slow start. They initially deliver chapters and so long (Chapter 4: 11 pages!) that regular Patterson readers may be shellshocked. Simply once they hit their pace, they complete each other in the "Jerry Maguire" sense: Clinton gives Patterson the substance he oftentimes lacks, and Patterson (or some tough editing) keeps Clinton from globe-trotting. He is able to dot the book with policy points, White Firm trivia (the names Frick and Frack are used, but for two men, not a pair of J.F.K.'south girlfriends) and heartfelt-sounding commentary on the wretched state of public soapbox. This book takes a vacation from all the howling and never goes lower than a snake's abdomen. That's a visceral relief.
Some of its innocence may be inadvertent. Its villain is a mercenary Osama bin Laden type who makes no sense and silently boasts to himself: "I am Suliman Cindoruk. And I'thousand about to reboot the world." But references to well-known hacking ops like Fancy Bear are much more disturbing than anything the authors can imagine. If they're in the loop about the latest in cyberthreats, or even the latest in fiction about cyberthreats, it doesn't show. Not even the assassin, who calls herself Bach and calls her beloved semiautomatic Anna Magdalena, is anything special. One of the livelier moments has a head-turning babe decked out in expensive merchandise transform herself from a tall redhead to a medium-size brunette. The authors may have a better feel for this kind of detail than for cutting-edge technological horrors.
Still, this book'southward a big ane. It's driven by star power and persuasive-sounding presidential candor. "Savagery in the quest for power is older than the Bible, but some of my opponents actually hate my guts," says President … Duncan. Clinton has fabricated sporting use of public loathing here, playing not but on readers' voyeurism merely on the chance to reinvent himself as a misunderstood hero. It's transparent, but it works. Who wouldn't enjoy a president who shouts "No! No politics today," and actually means information technology?
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/03/books/review-president-is-missing-bill-clinton-james-patterson.html
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