Jack Gance

by Ward Just

Book Overview

A young pollster named Jack Gance becomes a savvy Washington political insider and eventually a U.S. senator - but not without paying the usual dues, which turns out to be a dirty business. Gance wastes his love on married women, but ultimately learns who his true mistress is: "I had arrived an apprentice from Chicago, but Washington had taken care of that. It was a great city. . . . It gave and gave and gave and gave and expected nothing in return...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395856027
• ISBN13: 9780395856024
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Beautifully Written Portrait of a Political Man

This is a compelling novel, beautifully written and thoughtful, about a political operative who becomes a senator. Just's prose is graceful and his organization flawless. Among the many pleasures of this book are its secondary characters: the portrait of political fixer and lawyer Elly Mozart is a masterpiece of wit, to choose just one example. The major theme, of politics as compromise, is subtly handled.

One of his best...

...and he's one of the best writers in America. Fascinating and well-written story of a family, their talented but twisted son, and how the process of getting to Washington is so corrupt and corrupting that by the time you get there you have already lost the goal you started to seek. The ultimate in inside politics...and as pointed out by other reviewers, a nice trip for nostalgic baby boomers from the early part of the boom (like me, b. 1944). A good place to start on Just if he's new to you; a classic to savor if you know his work already.

Good.

Solid Just. Part Chicago, part federal politics. All real. Read it. You should.