Can an honest man become president? That is the question posed by The Race by Richard North Patterson, published by Henry Holt & Co.
In exploring the facets of that question through the actions and interactions of characters thinly-based on real-life political figures, one is drawn into Patterson's fairy-tale political world in which all appears to be as we expect it to be: to the brim with betrayals, shady deals, dirty tricks, and character assassination residing alongside attempted murder. Coincidences abound, and the factors of random chance and the vagaries of chaos theory play no important role in the telling of the story of a fictional Republican senator from Ohio, campaigning for election as president, whose political stances would make the real-life Democratic Senator Harry Reid stand up and cheer.
But the real story of The Race isn't the acts of the characters, but is instead in the words author Patterson puts into their mouths to reach real-world readers. By presenting protagonist Corey Grace as a liberal-leaning "conservative" maverick, Patterson gets to take potshots at the political situation of today. He rarely misses in his assessment of the two major American political parties, and their supporters, as being deficient in caring for the nation as much as they do their own personal fortunes by seeking instead to further their selfish goals by selling out for a pittance to the highest-connected bidder.
Patterson's words, emanating from Grace, often evoke a standard which should be followed by our leaders. For instance, in having Grace enter the lion's den of a Christian college in South Carolina to address the fundamentalist student body, Patterson manages to make the sort of critiques that should be asked of those who claim to believe the Bible to be the literal word of God. But only in fiction could a candidate face such a hostile audience of the Lions of the Lord and declare that "I am far more concerned with whether I'm on His side than with asserting that He is on mine" [p201] without being shouted down and sent running from the podium in fear for his life.
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