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Convention
A Republican National Convention, complete with the intrigue, excitement, joy, and disappointment that accompany politics, supplies the background for this fictionalized rendition of the process by which a presidential candidate is chosen. Secretary of the Treasury Charles B. Manchester, the party's leading candidate, goes to the nominating convention in Chicago with high hopes only to see union leaders, the President, and a majority of the delegates turn against him as he reveals his platform.
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First published January 1, 1964
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 29, 2018
This political novel was #10 on the 1964 bestseller list. It is a fictional story of what is said to be the 30th Republican National Convention. In real life, the 30th Convention was in 1972 when Richard Nixon was nominated to run for a second term as POTUS.
In the novel, the year is not stated. The top two contenders for the nomination are the Governor of California and the Secretary of the Treasury, who was the current (fictional) President's stated choice. The polarizing issue was nuclear weapons. The Treasury Secretary was also the predicted winner but after he makes an unwise statement in the early days of the convention, his lead shrinks to almost nothing. Who will win?
These political novels with fictional politicians make me a bit crazy because I cannot stop trying to make them fit with history. I read an earlier bestseller by these authors (Seven Days in May, 1962), about a fictional attempted military coup written during the first year of the Kennedy administration. I have read Fail-Safe as well as Allen Drury's Advise and Consent. The most recent was The Man by Irving Wallace, read just ten days before I read Convention.
I suppose they are worthwhile reads as examples of what could happen. On the whole, I feel much more comfortable reading actual Presidential biographies, each one of which necessarily includes at least one National Convention.
From Convention I learned more than I knew before about what it is like on the convention floor and what the delegates actually do. But there were also plenty of scenes in smoke-filled rooms and the shenanigans connected with the press.
Knebel and Bailey have been mocked as bad writers but they were both respected political journalists who knew the scene. The writing is fast-paced, the characters are believable rather than cliches, and they know how to build and plot a story. Plus, it is women who save the day!
In any case, I am now finished with the bestseller list for 1964! I will try to write a post soon about my thoughts on the list as a whole and how it reflects life in that year.
In the novel, the year is not stated. The top two contenders for the nomination are the Governor of California and the Secretary of the Treasury, who was the current (fictional) President's stated choice. The polarizing issue was nuclear weapons. The Treasury Secretary was also the predicted winner but after he makes an unwise statement in the early days of the convention, his lead shrinks to almost nothing. Who will win?
These political novels with fictional politicians make me a bit crazy because I cannot stop trying to make them fit with history. I read an earlier bestseller by these authors (Seven Days in May, 1962), about a fictional attempted military coup written during the first year of the Kennedy administration. I have read Fail-Safe as well as Allen Drury's Advise and Consent. The most recent was The Man by Irving Wallace, read just ten days before I read Convention.
I suppose they are worthwhile reads as examples of what could happen. On the whole, I feel much more comfortable reading actual Presidential biographies, each one of which necessarily includes at least one National Convention.
From Convention I learned more than I knew before about what it is like on the convention floor and what the delegates actually do. But there were also plenty of scenes in smoke-filled rooms and the shenanigans connected with the press.
Knebel and Bailey have been mocked as bad writers but they were both respected political journalists who knew the scene. The writing is fast-paced, the characters are believable rather than cliches, and they know how to build and plot a story. Plus, it is women who save the day!
In any case, I am now finished with the bestseller list for 1964! I will try to write a post soon about my thoughts on the list as a whole and how it reflects life in that year.
August 22, 2016
Like a time capsule from the early 1960's, specially preserved for nostalgic political junkies. Not quite a thriller, but somewhere in that neighborhood. The whole novel takes place during the course of a contested Republican National Convention. I can't get enough of Knebel and Bailey.
June 11, 2010
Book was so dated that they had to explain what a computer was...so it suffered from being written a while back.
June 1, 2012
Politics junkies will love this slightly wonkish but fairly good story about the inside horse trading at a major party political convention. Knebel was the master of the genre in his day.
November 21, 2019
"Convention" is my favorite novel by Fletcher Knebel. The author takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride through an old fashioned national convention of a major American political party. Published in 1964, the book's ensemble of characters find themselves in Chicago for the Republican National Convention. Competing factions - torn by personal loyalty, personal ethics, and a desire for advancement - struggle with each other and themselves against the background of a nominating fight between the urbane Secretary of the Treasury and shrewd Governor of California. Mr. Knebel was himself a journalist who covered conventions of that era. That experience informs his prose. The reader is transported back in time to the smoke filled rooms and underhanded deals that, for better of worse, characterized the brokered conventions of yesteryear.
This is my favorite of Mr. Knebel's books. Other novels by the author require the reader to suspend disbelief (i.e., a President gone insane, a military coup). "Convention" is gripping and entirely believable.
This is my favorite of Mr. Knebel's books. Other novels by the author require the reader to suspend disbelief (i.e., a President gone insane, a military coup). "Convention" is gripping and entirely believable.
December 8, 2022
not as riveting as it was in 1964
August 29, 2016
What fun to read a novel set against a party convention in the 1960s written by Fletcher Knebel and Charles Bailey, the authors of SEVEN DAYS IN MAY. The leader for the nomination going into the convention defies common wisdom and speaks out on the arms race. All hell breaks loose, a groundswell of public opinion affects the result, and the polling of the states actually matters. Imagine a race being fought over an issue that matters! Boy, did this book make me nostalgic.
September 21, 2018
Written by the author of Seven Days in May, this is another exciting tale, based on the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago - but with a different twist.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews