Very,  very entertaining  read!

Reviews..
Amazon REVIEW  ...    Senator Charlie Martin, the slightly John McCain-like war hero of Joe Klein's The Running Mate, thought getting blown up in Vietnam was tough, but presidential politics proves the uglier jungle battlefield. Charlie blows his challenge to the incumbent, Jack Stanton (the delightfully slimy protagonist of Klein's roman a clef  about Clinton's 1992 campaign), by refusing to smear Stanton for his affair with his wife's stylist, "the Happy Hairdresser." Then he brushes a campaign worker's breast--by accident--and gets punched on TV by her irate dad. Charlie does, however, revive his career by springing a veteran named Mustafa from a Vietnamese prison, and soon he's on Stanton's shortlist for veep and politicking to get an old war buddy named defense secretary. In this political novel par excellence, skeletons dance out of practically everybody's closet. Charlie's vivid trip back to Vietnam turns up a son he sired in a one-night stand; his wickedly droll, still healthy Southern press secretary is HIV positive; Mustafa has society reentry problems; major politicians turn out to be closet pill heads, boozehounds, or rapists of staffers ("Apparently, she suffered an involuntary loss of her virginity in the Cannon Building"). Even Republicans hoard deadly secrets. And politics isn't about policies, it's about artful Machiavellian maneuvers, backstabbing, and feeding scandals to ignorant, arrogant press know-it-alls. (You can't say Klein lacks chutzpah!) Ornery but honest Charlie finds politics "becoming more noxious and also more sterile as the century staggered home." One politico says, "It's a big game hunt, and we're the game.... The jungle'll be left to pygmies and hyenas." Klein hails and nails Stanton/Clinton for skillful cynicism: "He was all yak-butter and horseshit," says Charlie. Fans of Primary Colors will love this book's raffish authenticity. But the canvas is vaster--the Vietnam chapter is as evocative as the American ones--the story sprawls Tom Wolfe-ishly, and Klein is not just scoring points, he's a moralist hunting big game.

Hugely entertaining, wise, and sobering   .....    I begin with a bias whenever I read anything written by Joe Klein. I think he's the best political journalist around, and an immensely gifted novelist. My bias re-asserts itself in my comment about "The Running Mate": It is a hugely entertaining book, very wise, very sobering, and just beautifully written. I couldn't put it down, and I was sorry that the book ended.

A humourous adult read ....  I had initial reservations about reading the book. I am not a fan of American literature harping on about the ghosts of 'Nam' and especially not politicians so doing. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how Klein handled it. The book itself has fantastic witticism, intelligent prose and was introspective. I liked the manner in which Klein initially portrays the senator as a 'golden boy' only for this image to be felled in our eyes during the Senatorial election race. I like the fact that the love interest had a history and complications that came with it. I further loved the 'best friend' who is disillusioned by the Senator when he falls in love and 'loses his head' because it implies certain characteristics of a successful Presidential candidate and also about focused politicians in general.
I enjoyed this book tremendously and recommend it to all. I must admit I liked this book more than I did Primary Colors. It is more mature and I think better executed.

A political wonderland  ...  Imagine putting your 80 cents into a soda machine and having a bottle of expensive wine roll out. This is essentially what will happen to the reader who begins The Running Mate looking for an easy weekend read. Joe Klein had taken us through the looking glass to a world that while not unlike ours has one key difference: the political landscape, in all it's complexities and intricacies, is open for all of us to see. This in turn creates a novel that, while remaining an entertaining read, also works on the level of a socio-political commentary on the order of Orwell's Animal Farm. Characters may appear larger than life and events may seem otherworldy but that's Klein's point: the current political environment and those who participate in it have become detached from the rest of us and now live in a world of cartoon-like wackiness. As you might imagine, it's not a pretty place- one would not blame Klein for staying anonymous. With books like this he won't have to worry about running out of enemies but for the reader with an open, adventurous mind this is the guy to vote for.

A Book that Improves on Every Mistake of Primary Colors ...  I heard Joe Klein speak at my school, Millsaps College, and was impressed enough with his insider knowledge to give Primary Colors a second read. Knowing who "Anonymous" was didn't change the context of the book much. It was still a novel about wondering who wrote the novel. The guessing game of which politico he was tabloiding overshadowed any literary aspects of the novel.
This speaks volumes to why THE RUNNING MATE is so much smarter that PRIMARY COLORS. The characters are composites of our favorite pundits, but the most important dynamic of the book is character and truth, not shock and satire.
The character portraits are as compelling as the political portraits. We open as our character has his marriage proposal rejected, while fighting a sexual misunderstanding and failing at a run for the presidency. The descriptions of the veteran Senator returning to Vietnam afterwards are particularly powerful.
THE RUNNING MATE is delightfully complex. You voyeuristically watch the Senator as he manipulates the people that watch him. We love the characters for the traits that make them great Americans, while simultaneously watching those same traits damn them. I particularly like how Klein uses many of the events from original novel as a backdrop. The events of Primary Colors seriously affect the new characters. It makes Klein's political timeline a universe of its own.
When he spoke at Millsaps, Klein mentioned that he wanted to "write the great modern novel about politics." And this time he has succeeded. This one is definitely a serious work that deserves another read, to catch the subtleties of Klein's observations of modern politics.

Marvellous Reading!

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