Powertown

by Michael Lind

Michael Lind is a Washington insider who in 1994 famously announced in clarion tones his conversion from conservative to liberal, promptly becoming an accomplished polemicist against the agenda of the right. His last book was a serious work of political analysis; now he follows with a novel satirizing the inside-the-beltway world he knows so well. Lind's title is somewhat ironic, for his characters are in the lower echelons of the capitol's hierarchy: Stef Schonfeld is a journalist at a political monthly; Evander Johnson is a young black teenage gang wannabe; Ross Drummond is a gay Republican lobbyist. Lind's story has the ring of truth.

Paperback

First published September 1, 1996

About the author

Currently Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program at the New America Foundation in Washington, Michael Lind has been an editor or staff writer for The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and The New Republic and writes frequently for The New York Times and the Financial Times. He is the author of more than a dozen books of history, political journalism, and fiction, including a poetry chapbook, When You Are Someone Else (Aralia Press, 2002), Bluebonnet Girl (Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2003), a children’s book in verse, which won an Oppenheimer Toy Prize for children’s literature, and a narrative poem, The Alamo (Replica Books, 1999), which the Los Angeles Times named as one of the best books of the year. His first collection of verse, Parallel Lives, was published by Etruscan Press in 2007.