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    If Men Were Angels: A Novel
    If Men Were Angels: A Novel
    If Men Were Angels: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    If Men Were Angels: A Novel

    Written by Reed Karaim

    Narrated by James Daniels

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The tumultuous presidential campaign of Thomas Crane, a charismatic but elusive senator from the midwest, presents reporter Cliff O’Connell with a career-making opportunity. Originally given little chance to succeed, Crane’s dark-horse candidacy suddenly takes off, and O’Connell is on the inside, traveling with the candidate from city to city across America.

    O’Connell’s former lover, Robin Winters, now works for the Crane campaign, and that relationship reignites at the same time the campaign—against all odds—takes off. O’Connell also discovers an unexpected rapport with Crane himself, who shares his love of history and humble, small-town background.

    Digging into a part of Thomas Crane’s past that refuses to make sense, uncovering layers of truth with a growing sense of unease, O’Connell is caught in a brutal triangle, torn between personal and political passions and his commitment to the truth. His discovery and what he does about it have unexpected and cataclysmic results for himself, Robin, Crane, and the nation.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateOct 10, 2008
    ISBN9781423371496
    If Men Were Angels: A Novel
    Author

    Reed Karaim

    Reed Karaim worked the Washington Bureau of Knight-Ridder Newspapers for eight years. In 1992, he covered the Democratic presidential campaign from April through the election. He is the author of short stories and poetry, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. If Men Were Angels is his first novel.

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    • 4/5
      Spoiler alert.

      This book is reminiscent of All the King’s Men in some ways. And it ends the same way – with the candidate getting killed.

      There are differences too. For one thing, this one is set in what I assume to be the recent past, although the author may have envisioned it as the near future when it was written.

      All the King’s Men was written many years ago, and it takes place in what was perhaps at that time the recent past or near future, but is now long ago. And in this case the protagonist is a reporter rather than a political staffer.

      Our reporter, Cliff O’Connell has been assigned to cover the candidacy of Thomas Hart Crane, originally thought to be a long-shot, for President. Up to this point, Cliff has had a rather lack-luster career as a reporter, but when Crane’s candidacy takes off, he finds his career on the upswing too.

      There is a love interest too. Cliff’s former lover, Robin, works for the Crane campaign, and she seems to be finding it the job she has always wanted. Cliff and Robin reconnect big time, and this somehow skews events, although I am not sure exactly what the connection is. I kept expecting it would turn out that Robin also had a relationship with Crane, but that didn’t happen – never even came close.

      What did happen, however, was that early in the campaign Robin, in her enthusiasm, mentions something about how Crane never even hesitates about anything. Cliff can’t believe that, and apparently doesn’t want to just accept it as over-enthusiastic babbling on Robin’s part, so he keeps worrying the point, questioning the people in Crane’s hometown to see if he was ever hesitant about anything related to his political career. It turns out that he came back three times, ostensibly to check with the people who were his earliest sponsors.

      Apparently suspecting it will turn out that Crane is somehow beholden to one of his rich sponsors in some way that will compromise his candidacy, Cliff keeps picking at the matter. Eventually he learns that Crane has a secret love-child. So secret that he has never even met her himself.

      After talking to the girl’s mother, Cliff has almost convinced himself that he won’t do anything with the information. No crime has been committed. Crane has been paying child support and has kept the affair secret at the request of the mother. But when he returns to the campaign, Robin meets him and personally begs him not to break the story.

      For some reason this sets Cliff off and, convinced that “the American people need to know the truth,” he informs his bosses at his paper and the story is, naturally published.

      This does terrible things to the Crane campaign. Given some of the disastrous revelations of the past twenty or thirty years of real life politics as usual, it is difficult to believe the amount of hate launched at this man (ok, maybe not that difficult) who, frankly seems to be a basically good-hearted sort. If this was the worst thing he had ever done, it is entirely possible he might have made a good President.