by Edwin O’Connor, introduction by Jack Beatty, 2016 (originally published in 1956), Kindle Edition, University of Chicago, Reprint Edition

This novel was chosen as our November 2016  Men’s Book Club Selection.  While it is a book of fiction, it was purportedly written based on the life of James Michael Curley, the infamous governor of Massachusetts and mayor of Boston.

The book alludes to the many things that Steffington, the fictional main character of the book, did in his political career to get the results he intended.  Some of these tactics were underhanded, but most of them succeeded.  The author depicted one example where Steffington tricked a somewhat slow-witted son of one of his opponents into accepting a job for which is was clearly unqualified. This example, however, was the only example in the book that really showed how devious Steffington could be.  I wish that there had been a few additional episodes like this.

The final pages of the book suggested that politicians of the old school like Steffington might not exist in the new realm of mass media.  The passage of time since this book was written doesn’t bear that out.  New “media-smart” politicians seem to carry on in the new environment, but, just because they have grasped how to manipulate the media hasn’t caused them to give up their old ways of doing things.  As I read the book I thought of Buddy Cianci in Providence and how he did things while he was in office.  I didn’t see a lot of difference between Cianci and Steffington, and perhaps James Michael Curley in Boston even though Cianci came onto the scene much later.

The book was fairly well-written and apparently caused a sensation when it first appeared.  It is definitely not a page-turner, however, and I didn’t find anything surprising in it.