The Coup: A Novel

by Jamie Malanowski

A savagely funny and knowing political satire about a vice president with an irresistible itch to move up a notch.
Godwin Pope, the current vice president of the United States, is bored out of his skull. The one-time software billionaire and hyperconfident alpha male has been reduced to the most empty tasks while the administration of President Jack Mahone sinks lower and lower in the polls with every gaffe and self-generated fiasco. Into his orbit swings Maggie Newbold, the sexy fallen-star journalist with a bad habit of sleeping with her sources, who's on a rehabilitation tour with Newsbreak magazine. Pope sees in Maggie the instrument of his salvation, and he sets into motion a plot of incredible subtlety (and, he believes, untraceability) whereby the Mahone administration will be so tarred by scandal that even though the president didn't actually do anything, he'll have no choice but to resign. Leaving the chair in the Oval Office vacant for Pope's ascension, just as he deserves. Drawing on our current political climate (the incestuous relationship between the press and the politicians, government agendas driven by scandal and spin, raging ambition and toxic competition at the highest levels) while telling an unforgettable and ingeniously plotted story, The Coup is deliciously cynical, unsurpassingly witty—and dismayingly believable.

Genres: Politics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 10, 2007

About the author

JAMIE MALANOWSKI IS A WRITER AND EDITOR. A member of the original staff of Spy, where he worked seven years, Jamie has also been an editor at Time, Esquire and Playboy, where he was Managing Editor. Jamie has also written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Washington Monthly, and The New York Times, where he was the lead writer for Disunion, the award-winning series about the Civil War. He is also the author of the novels Mr. Stupid Goes to Washington (Birch Lane, 1992) and The Coup (Doubleday, 2007); the author of And the War Came, a history of the six months that preceded the start of the Civil War (Byliner, 2011); the author of The Book of Levon: The Trial and Triumphs of Levon Helm, an e-single about the life of the musician Levon Helm (Bolt Books, 2013); co-author with Kurt Andersen and Lisa Birnbach of the play and book Loose Lips; co-author, with Martyn Burke, of the HBO movie Pentagon Wars; and co-author, with Susan Morrison, of the humor book Spy High. His articles have been anthologized in Spy: The Funny Years, by Kurt Andersen, Graydon Carter and George Kalogerakis; Killed: Great Journalism Too Hot To Print, edited by David Wallis; Mirth of a Nation, Volume II: The Best Contemporary Humor, edited by Michael J. Rosen; The Playboy Book of True Crime; The Fun Never Stops!: An Anthology of Comic Art 1991-2006, edited by Drew Friedman, Daniel Clowes, and Ben Schwartz; and Lincoln: A President for the Ages, edited by Karl Weber. Jamie lives in Westchester County NY with his wife, Virginia, and daughters Maria and Cara.

Reviews

[Michael Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A racy, smart and fast read about the the way politics really happens in modern America. The story of a Vice President who decides to make his move and finish off his President's ailing Administration and how he deftly accomplishes that goal.

[Robyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was bored with this book almost immediately. The plot is implausible. The characters are completely predictable and not interesting. They are stereotypes of people in the political sphere. I was very disappointed.

[Sandy Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

If u r looking for 3 dimensional characters, look elsewhere. However, as most wise-asses are apt to be, the author has woven some profound truths around fun, biting satire. Great for beach reading...