Potus Geeks Book Review: All the Demons are Here by Jake Tapper
In his third novel detailing the adventures of Congressman (now Senator) Charlie Marder and his zoologist wife Margaret, CNN anchor Jake Tapper boldly goes into the next generation of the Marder family in his newest work All the Demons are Here, as the story's protagonists are the couple's offspring. It's 1977, the nation is recovering from Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal and the mistrust of government and political leaders that followed in its wake. Polarization has reared its ugly head and it has spread into the news media as tabloid journalism makes its way across the pond into the nation's capitol.
The Marder children are now adults. Ike (named after the president with the famous grin Dwight Eisehnower) has joined the Marines and has checked himself out of a VA hospital after a traumatic episode in Lebanon. His older sister Lucy is an underappreciated journalist for a Washington daily, struggling to establish herself in a male-dominated world in which others take credit for her hard work. Ike snaps up an offer from his boyhood hero, Evel Kneval, working as a motorcycle mechanic in Montana, in a region surrounded by factions of white supremacists, wilderness refugees, religious cults, UFO enthusiasts and most stressful of all, his mercurial and narcissistic employer.
When Lucy is head-hunted by a Rupert Murdoch-like newspaper publisher intent on sacrificing journalistic integrity for sensationalism, she finds her principles compromised as she is assigned to cover a possible serial killer in the DC area. When Ike badly injures a neo-Nazi in a barroom fight, he is forced to go on the lam, soon to be reunited with his employer in a cross-country adventure involving the King of Rock'n'Roll and the forthcoming 1980 Presidential contest.
Tapper has a wonderful ability to turn real life historical figures such as Knevel, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, Barry Goldwaeter, Pat Buchanan and many others into characters in his story without betraying their true nature. He also excels at weaving a tapestry out of all of the cultural happenings of his story's era as a backdrop for his main event. In this case, these include New York's Son of Sam, Studio 54, the death of Elvis, the laetrile controversy, the shameful treatment of Vietnam veterans, racism, the energy crisis, the liberal vs. conservative schism in the GOP, and all of Knevel's daredevil antics. For many of the events described in the book, the reader must ask, "did that really happen, or is Tapper making this stuff up to add spice to the story?" The answers will surprise even the most knowledgable historian.
Tapper has established a pattern of writing page-turner tales that are a delight to read for political junkies, historans, mystery lovers or anyone whose personal venn diagram includes overlapping of these. The stories entertain by having those characters who are real-life figures act in a credible fashion, just as we expect they would have in these situations, and he fills his fictional heros and villains with qualities that make us cheer and jeer in just the right proportion. This book provides the quality that we have come to expect from Tapper's two previous novels and is a most welcome addition to 2023's summer reading list (but be sure to put it at the top of the pile!)
The Marder children are now adults. Ike (named after the president with the famous grin Dwight Eisehnower) has joined the Marines and has checked himself out of a VA hospital after a traumatic episode in Lebanon. His older sister Lucy is an underappreciated journalist for a Washington daily, struggling to establish herself in a male-dominated world in which others take credit for her hard work. Ike snaps up an offer from his boyhood hero, Evel Kneval, working as a motorcycle mechanic in Montana, in a region surrounded by factions of white supremacists, wilderness refugees, religious cults, UFO enthusiasts and most stressful of all, his mercurial and narcissistic employer.
When Lucy is head-hunted by a Rupert Murdoch-like newspaper publisher intent on sacrificing journalistic integrity for sensationalism, she finds her principles compromised as she is assigned to cover a possible serial killer in the DC area. When Ike badly injures a neo-Nazi in a barroom fight, he is forced to go on the lam, soon to be reunited with his employer in a cross-country adventure involving the King of Rock'n'Roll and the forthcoming 1980 Presidential contest.
Tapper has a wonderful ability to turn real life historical figures such as Knevel, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, Barry Goldwaeter, Pat Buchanan and many others into characters in his story without betraying their true nature. He also excels at weaving a tapestry out of all of the cultural happenings of his story's era as a backdrop for his main event. In this case, these include New York's Son of Sam, Studio 54, the death of Elvis, the laetrile controversy, the shameful treatment of Vietnam veterans, racism, the energy crisis, the liberal vs. conservative schism in the GOP, and all of Knevel's daredevil antics. For many of the events described in the book, the reader must ask, "did that really happen, or is Tapper making this stuff up to add spice to the story?" The answers will surprise even the most knowledgable historian.
Tapper has established a pattern of writing page-turner tales that are a delight to read for political junkies, historans, mystery lovers or anyone whose personal venn diagram includes overlapping of these. The stories entertain by having those characters who are real-life figures act in a credible fashion, just as we expect they would have in these situations, and he fills his fictional heros and villains with qualities that make us cheer and jeer in just the right proportion. This book provides the quality that we have come to expect from Tapper's two previous novels and is a most welcome addition to 2023's summer reading list (but be sure to put it at the top of the pile!)