本帖隐藏的内容
Bill Clinton’s debut thriller is an exercisein wish-fulfilment
But presidential insights are missingin “The President is Missing”
The President isMissing. By Bill Clinton and JamesPatterson. Little, Brown.
ONE of them was a publishing machinewith scores of bestsellers under his belt. The other knew the White House likethe back of his hand (because he lived in it for eight years). Together theymade a perfect thriller-writing team. Or so claims the marketing for BillClinton’s debut novel, “The President is Missing”, co-written with JamesPatterson, whose books have sold over 375m copies. Insider knowledge! Thrillsand spills! More of the latter than the former, it turns out.
In what seems a case ofwish-fulfilment in more ways than one, “The President is Missing” features amorally unimpeachable president—a former soldier who was captured and torturedby the enemy but never said a word (his middle name is Lincoln rather thanJefferson). Now he is stressed, sick and grieving, juggling bitter enemies anduncertain friends. Suddenly he faces a crisis of such magnitude that itinvolves saving not only America from catastrophe, but probably the entirehuman race. “Not since Kennedy stared down Khrushchev over the missiles in Cubahas our nation been this close to world war,” the president muses. To stand anychance of success, he must go spectacularly off-piste. Hence the title.
Alas, “The President is Missing” isitself missing some things that might have improved it. It is short of realpolitical insight, which is surprising. There is no sex, which may or may notbe even more surprising. What it offers instead are 128 chapters of breathless,onward-rushing, monosyllabic prose and enough twisty plotting to give thereader a bad case of whiplash (mixed metaphors intentional). The storylineswings back and forth between the president and his pals—an imposing chancellorof Germany called Juergen Richter who looks “like something out of Britishroyalty”, a Russian prime minister with an iron handshake and a gushy Israelipremier. “You know that Israel will never leave your side,” she assures thepresident.
The assembled global uppy-ups anddirty low-lifers spend the book hopping across highways and down cul-de-sacs.The plot is epic and unlikely, and includes such grand concerns as terrorism,computer shutdowns, the threat of chaos, civil disorder, and death on agigantic scale. As a helpful timer ticks down the minutes, the denouement comeswith just three seconds to spare. There are baddies who turn out to be goodies,and a goody who turns out to be very bad indeed: an ambitious woman with a soulshrivelled by envy. There is a female assassin who goes by the codename Bach.
For much of the ride, it is not clearquite what Mr Clinton has contributed. But, just as more than 500 pages ticktowards zero, the presidential co-author finally gets his hands on the plot.Having seen off the baddies and saved America and the world, the hero tries aspot of bipartisan rallying.
In an address to a joint session ofCongress, he reveals why he had to abscond from the White House—while alsocalling for immigration reform, gun controls, a meaningful climate-changedebate and a return to the Founding Fathers’ ambition to form a more perfectunion. “After the speech, my approval ratings rose from less than 30% to morethan 80%. I knew it wouldn’t last, but it felt good to be out of the dungeon.”In his dreams.