Memories of the Ford Administration: A Novel"Stunning...Alf's life and times are light and funny; Buchanan's are dark and serious. Alternating between the two, Mr. Updike entertains and instructs...in gorgeous prose." THE WALL STREET JOURNAL When junior college professor Alfred Clayton is asked to record his impressions of the Ford Administration, he recalls a turbulent piece of personal history as well. In a decade of sexual liberation, Clayton was facing a doomed marriage and the passionate beginnings of a futile affair with an unattainable Perfect Wife. But one memory begets another: Clayton's unfinished book on James Buchanan. In John Updike's fifteenth novel, he masterfully alternates between the two men, two lives, two American centuries--one Victorian, the other modern--shining an irreverent, witty, and sometimes caustic light on the contrasting views of social fictions and sexual politics.... A MAIN SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK "From the Paperback edition." |
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Abolitionists Adams Ann Coleman Ann's Arthrop asked beneath body Brent BUCHANAN DYING Buzzy Cabinet called chanan Charleston Clay Cobb Daphne dark dear door eyes face father feel felt Floyd Ford Fort Moultrie Fort Sumter friends fuck Genevieve Genevieve's Gerald Ford girls Grace Hubley hair hand Harriet Lane head Howell Cobb Jackson James Buchanan Jennifer John John Slidell King knew Lancaster letter lips living looked Lysistrata Major Anderson marriage ment Miss Hubley Missouri Compromise morning mother Moultrie never night Norma party Pennsylvania perfect perhaps Philadelphia political President President's Queen of Disorder remember resignation Sarah secession Secretary seemed Senator sense sexual sister slavery sleep smile South Carolina Street Sumter talk things thought tion told Trescot turned voice Wadleighs Washington Wayward Wendy Wheatland wife woman words young