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    Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics
    Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics
    Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics
    Audiobook16 hours

    Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics

    Published by Recorded Books, Inc.

    Narrated by Peter Francis James

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The best politcal novel of the year by a landslide, Primary Colors is the riveting story of a governor-from-a-small-state's quest for the presidency, and a jaded Beltway insider's search for a leader to believe in. Spending nearly a year on the New York Times best-seller list, this blockbuster novel has sold well over one million copies. Primary Colors offers a richly detailed look at life on the political stump. As former congressional aide Henry Burton is dazzled and lured into presidential hopeful Jack Stanton's fledgling campaign, he becomes a cog in Stanton's unstoppable political machine. Burton illuminates-through his actions and observations-the sometimes seamy, sometimes steamy and sometimes surprisingly noble ascent to the presidency. Filled with spin doctors, power brokers, and loyal followers, this story of a presidential race spans the spectrum from bedroom farce to high moral drama. Narrated with commanding presence by Peter Francis James, Primary Colors paints such an authentic picture of national politics that it's become the most talked-about novel of the political season.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 30, 2012
    ISBN9781428199507
    Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics

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    Reviews for Primary Colors

    3.5/5

    430 ratings23 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is a GREAT plot, well written and really interesting so now I don't care who wrote it. (reviewed in 1996)
    • 4/5
      I'm imagining some of this is fictional, but his portrayal of Bill is pretty amazing.
    • 4/5
      I read "Primary Colors" way back when the author was Anonymous; at the time I hoped the author was Al Gore or Dan Quail or similar. Turns out Anonymous was some random bloke, which took some of the gloss off the book for me.An ever so slightly fictionalised retelling of Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign, and even back then you were feeling sorry for Hillary Clinton/Susan Stanton for having to put up with Bill's/Jack's misdemeanors.
    • 4/5
      Primary Colors was written by Joe Klein, a reporter that was following the 1992 Clinton campaign. With characters based on Clinton's inner circle, the book is a behind-the-scenes look at what happens during a political campaign. We follow Henry Burton, a young idealistic former congressional aide, as he assists Governor Jack Stanton (aka Bill Clinton) towards the Democratic nomination. Jack Stanton is a man of many appetites, from food to women, but oozes charisma, and is a flawed but brilliant politician. We get a glimpse of how dirty politics can be and what will be done for power and position. The pacing is uneven, but I enjoyed how easy it was to picture the real-life inspirations in their fictional counterparts. (Mario Cuomo for Orlando Ozio, James Carville for Richard Jemmons, Susan Stanton for Hillary Clinton, amongst others) The book is funny and biting, but like a rough political campaign, often swung from being a frantic sprint and a slog through mud. In the end, it was a very enjoyable read and I would recommend it for anyone who wants to see what happens behind the closed doors of politics.
    • 4/5
      This is a presidential campaign version of Noises Off: when you think nothing else can go wrong, something else does, but the campaign somehow staggers on. This is more because of the author's thumb on the scale than because of any closeness to the actual Clinton campaign in 1992, which had it's problems (as everyone can remember) but not all of those particular problems. The central characters are, likewise, clearly based on the Clintons, but not in the most balanced of ways. (Their subsequent history bears out this divergence: it's hard to see Susan as a Senator and then Secretary of State in the Clinton mold.)That being said, it's a fun light read in an election season. The episodic disaster structure points up its close relation to farce, albeit with some black humour elements. As a political novel, it's unlikely to stand up as well as, say, Trollope's Palliser novels, or even Dobbs' House of Cards, though.
    • 2/5
      Have tried three times to get through this -- each time with varying success. Will try again.
    • 4/5
      Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics, Joe Klein's anonymously published novel based on a fictionalized Clinton '92 campaign, covers the drama and day-to-day victories and defeats of politicking in the early 1990s. Those familiar with Clinton's campaign will enjoy finding the references to political movers and shakers from that period, but the story is capable of entertaining on its own while asking the question of how far a campaign must go, which values a candidate can sacrifice, to gain power. Klein's characters are fully-realized people, with flaws and goals, capable of making mistakes while trying to make a difference. Though many of the references are dated, the characters are vibrant enough and the themes topical enough to keep the novel relevant. If you enjoy the 1998 movie and want a better story, do yourself a favor and read the book, especially for its cliffhanger ending.
    • 2/5
      Anstrengendes Buch, das meine Erwartungen enttäuscht hat. Wo ist die Spannung, wo ist das wirklich Neue ? Da ist ein Bericht auf CNN über Wahlkampf aufregender...
    • 5/5
      When I bought this book the name on the cover was still "Anonymous" and the book was getting tremendous buzz because it was obvious Henry and Susan Stanton stood for Bill and Hilary Clinton and everyone was speculating someone close to them had to have written the book. But the reason I picked it up was simple. Back then I worked as a campaign staffer--in a presidential campaign no less, only on the state, not national level. And a fellow staffer told me I had to read this book--that it had the best description of what it's like inside a political campaign he had ever read.He cited a particular passage about the ferocious pace and momentum of campaigns, and I skimmed through the book trying to find it, and this might have been it:We moved into all of this so quickly that it was difficult to comprehend. It was as if we were being borne, actually propelled, through our schedule by a lunatic tide--we were sucked out of high school auditoriums. Kiwanis club luncheons, all the other stations of the cross, sucked into this narrow vortex, a combination of gauntlet and undertow.But yes, this took me back--back to the land of coffee and donuts and no sleep, to all the cussin.' (I had been a rather priggish girl who wouldn't say even the mildest of oaths, a few months into campaign work I was lobbing F-bombs and S-words left and right. It has taken years to scrub my language clean of casual obscenity and I haven't completely succeeded.) But most of all the book gets right both what whets your taste for politics and for many causes distaste and disillusion. How Americans will forgive anything if you're charming and likable. That in politics you sell your soul for power and it's all good because you'll make up for all the reprehensible, dirty things you've done because you'll change the world! But what changes is you.Note, I'm not involved in politics anymore.
    • 4/5
      Nice book. Mostly fun as a stroll down memory lane, back to the crazy, wacky days of campaign '92.
    • 3/5
      Entertainingly written but full of loathsome people.
    • 4/5
      Published in 1996, this is a fictionalized insider story of a staffer (a thinly disguised George Stephanopoulos) for a candidate (a very thinly disguised Bill Clinton) during primary season of the 1992 presidential campaign. I traveled a lot at that time and remember hearing people laughing on airplanes and when I’d look at their books it would be this, and there was high interest in uncovering the identity of “Anonymous” and matching the fictional politicians and staffers to their real-life counterparts.It’s held up well -- still funny and also thoughtful, particularly regarding the moral complexity of political candidates and whether ends justify means -- but skip the novel if you’ve seen the film. Today’s “scorps” (the media corps -- “scorpions”) have of course ramped up exponentially. It was fun to read during campaign season and envision the behind-the-scenes dramas that were undoubtedly happening with each candidate misstep.
    • 5/5
      The anonymity of Primary Colors appeared calculated on many different levels. It gave the author the ultimate freedom to insert truth into fiction and fiction into trust and never check the difference. No credentials on the author's part would guarantee the lack of fact-finding, allowing the author to come as close to the truth as fiction would allow. It is obvious Primary Colors is based upon Bill Clinton and his first presidential campaign in 1992. Jack Stanton is a young, charismatic southern-state governor with very human vices. He has a weakness for food and pretty women. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Sound like anyone you knew in the 90s? His wife is smart, unflappable; the one one comes up with the soundbites whenever the governor is interviewed. Primary Colors is told from the point of view of his presidential campaign employee, Henry Burton. Henry is idealistic about his candidate and wants to believe he's a man of his word, but as word and action soon start to contradict Henry must make a choice.
    • 4/5
      Primary Colors - I've wanted to see the film for ever, but never tracked it down. Finally saw the book in Waterstones and lashed out.It's a roman a clef, about Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign in 1992 - but the similarity comes through characters and situations rather than through the specific features of the plot. It's told through the voice of an idealistic 'pol' (Henry) who joins the campaign at an early stage and follows his arc from his initial inspiration by an idealised candidate (Jack) with a real love for and commitment to 'real voters', through difficult debates as he confronts the candidate's constant cheating of his wife and low skulduggery to improve his chances, and on to exhaustion and exasperation as Henry plans to leave the campaign. But the book closes as the campaign gains momentum again and Jack turns his charm and warmth to press Henry to stay on - we don't know what happens but my guess is that he gets sucked back in. Many reviews cite Primary Colours as a satire - I wasn't struck by humour, but did feel the sense of informed, committed cynicism.I loved the politics - and while reading (and often while thinking during the day) I often found myself thinking about the sense it generates of pacy politics, rapid analysis and strategising and carefully calculated moves. I like the way that the novel - like a lot of good TV - steps straight into jargon and conversation and expects the reader to work out the significance of (for example) a campaign having both old ladies and teenagers volunteering. I suspect that part of my sense of pace comes from the overlap in context and tone with the West Wing.I found Susan Stanton's character utterly alienating, and mostly because of her responses to Jack. Her portrayal is complex - there are flashes of empathy and Henry feels angry for her; but her one night stand feels like calculated retaliation rather than a reaching out for affection. And her responses to Jack are an odd mixture of maternal care, disappointment and guidance and coach, business partner and co-performer. I can't pin it down - but my feelings toward Susan are very similar to my ambivalence about Hilary Clinton. She should be an inspiration - but somehow her compromises for power turn me off.
    • 4/5
      Forget the gossip. Just an excellant political novel of the 90's and beyond.
    • 4/5
      The Stauntons in the book parrot the Clintons in real life, not just in their physical appetites, but in their political hardnesw. Jack Stantion loves strange young pssy and donuts (just as does Bill Clinton), and his love of pressing the flesh and sharing his emotions like an empathetic boy-child are also eerily similiar. I saw the movie first, and it follows so closely, phrase for phrase, action for action, to the book they didn't have any trouble converfting it to a scrfeenplay. One is left wondering just how fictional this work of fiction is, and why, if it IS SO FICTIONAL, can not the author disclose him or herself. (Of coujrse, the anonymity helps marketing the book, fueling the "do you think it is so and so?" mentality. It works as a novel, but the reader must provide his own moral sense and is lfet wondering if the only people in politics who believe in truth and candor must be crazy and must kill themselves.
    • 4/5
      A very thinly veiled portrait of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, written anonymously by one of the reporters who covered it. This is probably my all-time favorite political novel, and I would recommend it to anyone, whether they love or hate the Clintons.
    • 3/5
      Primary Colors is a thinly veiled retelling of the 1992 Clinton campaign during the primary seasons, with Jack Stanton, a worn out 1960s idealist serving as governor of a Southern state, serving as the stand-in for Bill Clinton. Jack Stanton's politically ambitious but long-suffering wife Susan serves as the stand-in for Hillary. The book was originally published under the pseudonym "Anonymous", but quite a while back it was revealed that the actual author was journalist Joe Klein, which, given Klein's somewhat strained relationship with the truth as a reporter, doesn't add a whole lot to the credibility of the novel.When published, many people regarded it as an expose of the inner workings of the Clinton administration, taking the "Anonymous" author to be an insider in the administration who didn't want to suffer personal recriminations. Joe Klein was not an insider in the campaign, and it is dubious whether the novel gives anything other than a somewhat interesting story extrapolating from the worst aspects of the personas of both Clintons and applying them to the Stantons. I'm no fan of the Clintons, and I would have been happy if the story told here had any kind of credibility, but it simply doesn't.Jack Stanton is everything that Clinton despisers hope Bill Clinton truly is, and Susan Stanton has every bad attribute ever attributed to Hillary. He is a lazy, womanizing hedonist. She is a bitter, power-hungry, cold harridan. Both cheat on the other - he almost openly and often, she in secret out of revenge. Both are interested solely in power, having cast their ideals aside in that quest long ago.The plot itself is not that strong - essentially most of the book follows Jack as his personal failings threaten to derail his primary campaign, and his staff struggle to cover up or otherwise defuse the problems. Most of the characters are little more than cardboard cut-outs, serving merely as props for the drama of the Stantons. On the whole, this book is neither nearly as insightful as people originally thought, nor particularly well-written. As an artifact of 1990s politics, it is somewhat interesting to read for historical purposes, but not much else.
    • 5/5
      This is a great book, and it will remind many people of President Clinton's little "issue" with the intern. It is a great book from start to finish and the movie is also very good. I recommend reading this first before seeing the movie though.
    • 3/5
      I was interested in this book as a political science student, but I honestly found the mystery about the author (so long ago solved!) much more interesting than the book itself. I wonder if it would have even been noticed had it not been about Clinton and not been written anonymously.It was okay, but I did not like any of the characters at all. They seemed a bunch of self-righteous, morally corrupt, and power-hungry people with whom I could not identify. They were not just anti-heroes, but far worse. The plot keeps this book alive, but barely. In the end, I cannot recommend it, but it wasn't bad either.
    • 4/5
      I read this book when it first came out and felt as if I was getting an inside look at the Clinton Adminstration. That I can still remember the plot after all these years is a sign of good writing, but I'd hesitate to recommend reading it now. I don't think there's anything here that you couldn't already guess.
    • 4/5
      A great book. It really runs you through your paces. It would be humorous if there wasn't so much truth to it. A nice analysis on what defines a lesder or a hero. I suppose in reality all of our heroes are flawed.
    • 4/5
      The story of Jack Stanton, a Democratic candidate for president, as seen through the eyes of a campaign worker who starts off very impressed with Stanton's political skills and interest in the process, and ends up a little disillusioned with his lasciviousness and inability to admit to it. Also, it seems as though he never has to pay for his transgressions. Other people do.