In Search of the Washington Novel (Amusing Essay)

City Journal ^ | Autumn 2010 | Christopher Hitchens

[mojito]

Fiction about the nation’s capital is a growth that flourishes only on the lower slopes of Parnassus. Think of the flower of our novelists—Updike, Mailer, Roth, Cheever, Bellow—and see if you can call to mind a single scene that is set on the banks of the Potomac. Mailer did a famous nonfiction account of the march on the Pentagon (The Armies of the Night), and Updike briefly created a lifelike President Buchanan, but that second exception proves a more general rule, exemplified by Gore Vidal’s canon: historical reconstruction is the form in which our novelists prefer to approach the matter.

Can one imagine a Dickens without London or a Zola or Flaubert without Paris? The radix malorum can probably be found in the famous bargain between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, made when New York was still the capital of these United States. In exchange for an agreement to build the constitutionally mandated new Federal City on the border of Jefferson’s beloved Virginia, Hamilton could have his coveted national bank. Thus, and allowing for certain Philadelphian interludes, it was decided early on that the cultural capital of America would be separated from its political one.

[mojito]

Entertaining essay by Hitch.

[x]

London and Paris novelists didn't usually write much about politicians and their doings, which is what the "Washington novel" is all about.

The American counterparts of novelists like Dickens and Balzac wrote about New York (or possibly Chicago or Los Angeles), not Washington.

[GeronL]

That Civil War fiction novel by William Safire was a pretty good “Washington novel”

[Timocrat]

Entertaining essay by Hitch.

He's a very droll writer, viz:

One of his short stories—“The Congressman Who Loved Flaubert”—is my selection for the most improbable title ever evolved on the banks of the Potomac.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"We still await the novelist who can address the matter of the last, best hope of earth and treat it without frivolity, without cynicism, and without embarrassment."

Whatever other opinions he has, Hitch understands at least one thing very well.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

“The Whitehouse Mess” by Christopher Buckley is very funny.

[Jack Deth]

Most any novel written by the late, great Ross Thomas. Especially If You Can't Be Good, The Money Harvest, Yellow Dog Contract and Twilight At Mac's Place give a splendid view of how Corporate and Political Wheeler Dealers operate in DC.

If you enjoy descriptive travelogue and the glimpses of the Capital's recent, early 60s history; try Cast A Yellow Shadow.

Ross Thomas was to DC what Hammett was to San Fransisco and Ross MacDonald was to Southern Florida.

[GeronL]

Is that the one where all the characters were writing “tell all” books during the crazy administration?

[Pelham]

‘Advise and Consent’ by Allen Drury, portraying the Washington DC of my youth. And Drury was one of the rare politically conservative authors.