From a writer whose last book, Henry and Clara, prompted John Updike to declare Thomas Mallon one of the most interesting American novelists at work, comes a story that perfectly captures the delightful romance and wistful magic of our recent, and more innocent, past.
Thomas Mallon has masterfully appropriated a jubilant legend (and famous headline) of modern American history -- Harry Truman's upset victory over Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential election -- and built around it a midwestern Midsummer Night's Dream.
Set in Dewey's hometown of Owosso, Michigan, this is the captivating story of a local love triangle that mirrors the national election contest. As the voters must decide between candidates, so must Anne Macmurray choose between two suitors: an ardent UAW organizer and his polar opposite, a wealthy lawyer who's certain he will ride to state Senate victory on Republican coattails.
As they weave a small-town tapestry of dreams and secrets, the people of Owosso ready themselves for the fame that is bound to shower down upon them after Dewey's "sure thing" victory. But as the novel -- and history -- move toward election night, we watch the citizens of Owosso, Anne Macmurray and her suitors in particular, await the outcome of the election and the rearrangement of their fates in a climax filled with suspense, chagrin, and unexpected joy.
Praise for Thomas Mallon's Dewey Defeats Truman:
“A warm, touching, and richly textured novel; a classic American movie filmed in glorious prose deluxe.” —Entertainment Weekly
“A finely textured web. . . . Like Shakespeare’s summery comedies, the novel is about love’s madness. . . . Effortlessly summons the feel of a bygone era. . . . A lovely meditation on the interplay between past and present.” —Jay Parini, The New York Times Book Review
“Charming . . . Mallon is a master of detail about a place and a time.” —Chicago Tribune
“A beautifully written and absorbing novel, with richly drawn characters and a wealth of bubbling plots.” —Detroit Free Press
“It’s fueled by a sense of period detail so strong that reading it seems at times like paging through an old high school yearbook . . . I enjoyed the wit and precision with which Mallon presents this world.” —Boston Sunday Globe
“Thomas Mallon is a smart, inventive, prolific writer . . . What interests him is not history per se but the way in which large events touch and alter the lives of ordinary, unknown people.” —The Washington Post
“Mallon’s prose is always rich and economical. . . . Dewey Defeats Truman is the kind of novel that restores meaning to the present by recovering the past.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“[A] beautifully controlled novel. . . . Mallon has so meticulously re-created a time and place that even trivial data has the force of nothing less than truth. . . . Mallon’s complicated meditation on the trials of private and public identity is beautifully fashioned. Its tale of yesteryear tells America a little bit about what it is today.” —Publishers Weekly
THOMAS MALLON is the author of eleven novels, including Henry and Clara, Dewey Defeats Truman, Fellow Travelers, Watergate, and Landfall. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, and other publications. 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.
From a writer whose last book, Henry and Clara, prompted John Updike to declare Thomas Mallon one of the most interesting American novelists at work, comes a story that perfectly captures the delightful romance and wistful magic of our recent, and more innocent, past.
Thomas Mallon has masterfully appropriated a jubilant legend (and famous headline) of modern American history -- Harry Truman's upset victory over Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential election -- and built around it a midwestern Midsummer Night's Dream.
Set in Dewey's hometown of Owosso, Michigan, this is the captivating story of a local love triangle that mirrors the national election contest. As the voters must decide between candidates, so must Anne Macmurray choose between two suitors: an ardent UAW organizer and his polar opposite, a wealthy lawyer who's certain he will ride to state Senate victory on Republican coattails.
As they weave a small-town tapestry of dreams and secrets, the people of Owosso ready themselves for the fame that is bound to shower down upon them after Dewey's "sure thing" victory. But as the novel -- and history -- move toward election night, we watch the citizens of Owosso, Anne Macmurray and her suitors in particular, await the outcome of the election and the rearrangement of their fates in a climax filled with suspense, chagrin, and unexpected joy.
Reviews
Praise for Thomas Mallon's Dewey Defeats Truman:
“A warm, touching, and richly textured novel; a classic American movie filmed in glorious prose deluxe.” —Entertainment Weekly
“A finely textured web. . . . Like Shakespeare’s summery comedies, the novel is about love’s madness. . . . Effortlessly summons the feel of a bygone era. . . . A lovely meditation on the interplay between past and present.” —Jay Parini, The New York Times Book Review
“Charming . . . Mallon is a master of detail about a place and a time.” —Chicago Tribune
“A beautifully written and absorbing novel, with richly drawn characters and a wealth of bubbling plots.” —Detroit Free Press
“It’s fueled by a sense of period detail so strong that reading it seems at times like paging through an old high school yearbook . . . I enjoyed the wit and precision with which Mallon presents this world.” —Boston Sunday Globe
“Thomas Mallon is a smart, inventive, prolific writer . . . What interests him is not history per se but the way in which large events touch and alter the lives of ordinary, unknown people.” —The Washington Post
“Mallon’s prose is always rich and economical. . . . Dewey Defeats Truman is the kind of novel that restores meaning to the present by recovering the past.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“[A] beautifully controlled novel. . . . Mallon has so meticulously re-created a time and place that even trivial data has the force of nothing less than truth. . . . Mallon’s complicated meditation on the trials of private and public identity is beautifully fashioned. Its tale of yesteryear tells America a little bit about what it is today.” —Publishers Weekly
THOMAS MALLON is the author of eleven novels, including Henry and Clara, Dewey Defeats Truman, Fellow Travelers, Watergate, and Landfall. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, and other publications. 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.
