Naked Presidents: An Alternate History

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Its backbone is our nation's modern political history, but the author's playful hand realizes it in a completely oblique manner, much to my entertainment. It provides an unusual perspective Bill Clinton, but ultimately squanders the promise offered by the premise to create a fully realized alternate history. Both Republicans and Democrats would at least agree that our near-miss with nuclear annihilation in 1962 was The Event to define the character of any presidency. I could have done without the cutesy attempts at humor -- a few sentences on legalizing marijuana would have been interesting without pulling a character from Animal House.

Alternate histories have become a genre in their own right, with WWII being by far the most popular historical period re-examined, but this is the first alternate history I've encountered that addresses perhaps the most fascinating single episode of the 20th century: the JFK assassination. It was refreshing to see a novel that didn't make a "Kennedy survives his assasination" plot into the second coming for America. First lady Nancy Reagan, who was already in bed, gave Allen permission to enter the room after knocking. Conservatives will find much of the plot twists pushing, if not puncturing the envelope of credibility (e.Perhaps stating the obvious, the plot itself goes a long way toward achieving that in this novel-as-thought-experiment, although the characters of JFK and Clinton ultimately remain two dimensional men; we get to see very little of their thoughts aside from their shared sexual obsession, and interestingly it is the two leading women in this saga, Judith Exner (in the JFK section) and Hillary Clinton, who become fully realized human beings. Allen declined to provide any details on any tensions in the Clinton's private quarters during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. What if Kennedy was the President who was impeached because of a sex scandal, and what if Clinton was the one struck down after only a thousand days in the White House?

Other authors have made such an effort in nonfiction works, so Silver’s novel is a change of pace in that regard.The shocking surprise ending will leave the reader wondering just what is reality and what is fantasy after all. By contrast Bill Clinton’s presidency is cut short by his assassination on November 22, 1995, thus leaving him a martyred president with no extramarital dalliance in the White House to sully his historical reputation. What if Kennedy had been the President impeached, and Clinton the one struck down after a thousand days in the White House? But again, the story was not improved by long drawn out descriptions of the characters' sexual activity.

The alternate timeline is not greatly different than our own, but different enough that it makes you think. In Silver's world, JFK's infidelities become public knowledge thanks to enemies like Hoover, and spark the nation's first independent counsel investigation and impeachment trial, whereas Bill Clinton is shot and killed by an ex-Marine named McVeigh in revenge for the Waco tragedy. Silver’s focus is on recounting events in his alternate timeline; because of this, his development of his novel’s characters is much weaker.So, I walked into the bedroom, and the president's just coming out of his dressing room in his underwear,” Allen said. The evolution of this alternate timeline without the JFK assassination: Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-Contra, the Space Program, all are changed. In most respects, his speculation of a post-Dallas presidency is the more interesting of the two sections, particularly when postulating Frank Sinatra’s renewed friendship with the Kennedy family.

More than a work of fiction, NAKED PRESIDENTS is a wild romp through an alternate universe, where conventional wisdom is overthrown and some of our most cherished myths are destroyed. g., Clinton as an Army General) but those with an open mind and a sense of humor, and particularly historians, should find much to ponder (the way in which Ken Starr becomes a Supreme Court Justice is only one of many, many inventive twists). This allows Silver to make his underlying argument for Clinton’ achievements as a president, an implicit argument he makes explicit at the end in a passionate and rambling epilogue. The novel is split into two sections: JFK is one half and Clinton the second, and both men, whose handshake was captured on camera in actual history, veer from that innocent point to grand reversals of fortune in an alternate, more Democratic dominated universe. To enable personalised advertising (like interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies.He dried his hands off and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, I'm working through that,’” Allen remembers, Reagan seemingly unfazed by the encounter. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The Vietnam era generation (of which I am not) and those longing for the success of the 90's will appreciate the intertwining of worlds both invented, inverted, and completely true--as JFK survives Dallas, Clinton is a whistle blower, Sinatra lives the latter part of his life sans tongue--while sex permeates the novel just enough to make it as slick as the real and reinvented presidents who play the lead roles. Etsy’s 100% renewable electricity commitment includes the electricity used by the data centres that host Etsy. Kennedy was not murdered in Dallas and in the book not murdered at all, and secondly, the book does contain some sexual content that may not be appropriate for all, especially if you are fond of the character.