Top 10 Political Novels
June 13, 2008
By Shelly Lowenkopf
Political novels are like thermometers: They reflect the temperature of a given era’s political symptoms. Here are 10 novels that reveal the fevered brows of their times.
1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2007). Set against a backdrop of the reign of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo, this narrative moves between the Dominican Republic and contemporary New Jersey to tell the story of a family, their friends and a diaspora. Remarkably formatted with footnotes reflecting history and authorial commentary, this novel compares growing up under a dictatorship to growing up in a minority in America.
2. The Plot Against America: A Novel by Philip Roth (2004). In a dystopian alternate universe, Franklin Delano Roosevelt loses the 1940 presidential election to Charles Lindbergh. America becomes by degrees more isolationist in foreign policy and anti-Semitic in social behavior.
3. The Handmaid’s Tale: A Novel by Margaret Atwood (1985). Another example of dystopia, or utopia-gone-wrong, The Handmaid’s Tale dramatizes the subjugation of women within a near-totalitarian, theology-based society. Author Atwood demonstrates how extremism, fundamentalism and sexist rhetoric undermine an informed and healthy society.
4. The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon (1959). In this conspiracy theory thriller set during the Korean War, an American platoon is captured and brainwashed to believe that one of their number heroically saved them during combat. The “hero” has been further brainwashed to serve as a sleeper agent for the Communists.
5. Advise and Consent by Alan Drury (1959). This novel is designed to show the intricate workings of the United States Senate. The narrative posits the nomination to the secretary of state position an individual with liberal politics and a background as a former Communist. The Senate, with a duty to advise the U.S. president and consent to his programs, is seen in action, vetting the individual and the implications of his service as secretary of state.
6. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene (1958). A genial but passive British expatriate working in pre-Castro Havana as a vacuum cleaner salesman becomes a British intelligence agent as a way of making more money to pay for his daughter’s convent education. This elaborately constructed satire effectively ridicules the often-unseen consequences of a mismanaged intelligence program.
7. The Ugly American by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick (1958). The United States, in its attempts to topple a fictional Southeast Asian country with a Communist regime, inflicts severe physical damage on the country and causes moral damage to American policy. This novel is a wrenching example of help that is well intended but unasked for, and of the hubris of dealing with another country without understanding its culture.
8. 1984 by George Orwell (1949). The final work by an ardent observer of the political process, this is an excellent representation of the scholar/critic Edward Said’s concept of late style. Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dramatic meditation on the effects of a society gone totalitarian, with its far-reaching repression on thought, independent spirit, foreign policy and moral inquiry.
9. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946). A fictionalized biography of a major populist politician from the American South, this narrative reflects the dialectic between power and conscience. Protagonist Willie Stark — like his real-life inspiration, Huey Long — has become an archetype of the American populist tradition.
10. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852). Many critics and historians agree that this sentimentalized accounting of the American experience with slavery fueled the Abolitionist Movement, which in turn influenced the American Civil War. Uncle Tom, his family and slave owner Simon Legree evolved from fictional presences to stereotypical realities well into the 20th century.
There are other significant contenders for this list, such as Animal Farm, Brave New World, The Red and the Black and The Last Hurrah. Each in its own way details the map of humanity’s political landscape.
Shelly Lowenkopf is a lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He is the author of Secrets of Successful Writing as well as a short fiction writer, literary critic and editor.