Dewey Defeats Truman

by Thomas Mallon

In 1948, the small town of Owosso, Michigan, is electrified by the presidential campaign of native favorite Thomas Dewey. Just as voters must decide between Dewey and Harry Truman, so must bookstore clerk Anne Macmurray choose between two suitors-the ardent United Auto Workers organizer and his polar opposite, the wealthy young Republican attorney with political ambitions.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Novels, Contemporary, Politics

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Thomas Mallon is an American novelist, essayist, and critic. His novels are renowned for their attention to historical detail and context and for the author's crisp wit and interest in the "bystanders" to larger historical events. He is the author of ten books of fiction, including Henry and Clara, Two Moons, Dewey Defeats Truman, Aurora 7, Bandbox, Fellow Travelers (recently adapted into a miniseries by the same name), Watergate, Finale, Landfall, and most recently Up With the Sun. He has also published nonfiction on plagiarism (Stolen Words), diaries (A Book of One's Own), letters (Yours Ever) and the John F. Kennedy assassination (Mrs. Paine's Garage), as well as two volumes of essays (Rockets and Rodeos and In Fact).
He is a former literary editor of Gentleman's Quarterly, where he wrote the "Doubting Thomas" column in the 1990s, and has contributed frequently to The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The American Scholar, and other periodicals. He was appointed a member of the National Council on the Humanities in 2002 and served as Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2005 to 2006.
His honors include Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, the National Book Critics Circle citation for reviewing, and the Vursell prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for distinguished prose style. He was elected as a new member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Senator barkley and I will win this election and make these Republicans like it--don’t you forget that!”

“I recommended an increase in the minimum wage. What did I get? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!”

Harry S. Truman


A very jubilant Harry

In 1948 the Republicans thought they had a lock on the presidential election. The New York Lion, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was dead, and that little pipsqueak from Missouri, Harry Truman, did not stand a chance. Thomas Dewey had been the Republican nominee in 1944, and had been soundly trounced by the electoral college 432 to 99. With Roosevelt finally off the ticket, this time he was going to win. In Owosso, Michigan they are so sure that Dewey is going to be the next president they are commissioning a walk to be built that will handle all the visitors that will be flocking to Dewey’s hometown to see where he was born and raised. Now maybe it makes sense that his hometown would feel this way, after all he is almost the most famous person to ever be born in Owosso. As President he would finally eclipse James Oliver Curwood, the bestselling author and the builder of that "monstrosity" Curwood Castle, in the esteem of the residents.


Curwood Castle

Anne Macmurray, aspiring writer and bookstore clerk, not only has to choose between two men for President, but also has to choose between two men vying for her affections and like the two presidential candidates her suitors are members of different political parties. As Truman goes on the offensive, attacking a do nothing Republican congress, in an attempt to win back the affections of the people who idolized his predecessor, Anne is also beseeched by her men and as one seems to gain an upper hand the other valiantly tries to keep her attention.

We know who she should marry and so does she,
but we can’t always help who we fall in love with.

Jane Herrick lives in Owosso, but is trapped in the past. She lost her son in the war and her life revolves around memories of him and the other boys that died.
”She lived on anniversaries. They came along like mealtimes in a hospital--regular, necessary and much anticipated occasions. Dark Anniversaries as well as happy ones, dates pertaining not only to Arnie but to other dead boys, too: births, graduations, inductions. her year was as complicated as the Catholics’ church calendar...This December 17 would be the fourth one since 1944’s which had been the third December 17 you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing Bing Crosby sing ‘White Christmas’; the last December 17 she had worn her green felt skirt to the Fellers’ Christmas party; the December 17 Arnie had been machine-pistoled to death along with eighty-five other American prisoners of war at Malmedy, Belgium.”

Her second son Tim is living in this mausoleum of her making and feels he needs to do something drastic to pull himself out of this dark whirlpool of sadness that surrounds his mother as she bludgeons herself with these meaningless daily anniversaries. Tim has an unhealthy relationship with the book Raintree County as he tries to make sense of why the author Ross Lockridge Jr. killed himself at the very moment when he was achieving success.

There are many more characters dotting the landscape of this novel. A Colonel with a secret that must be kept hidden. A teacher with a telescope that he uses to lure handsome young men into his attic. This is a book about secrets, small town secrets that turn out to be just as prevalent and just as dark as those of people living anywhere.

”You can’t get rid of the past. The past is not a matter of time. It’s a place. Somewhere just out of reach.”

Without Roosevelt on the ticket in 1948 the enthusiasm of the American people was tepid at best. They missed his leadership; his assurances, but most importantly they missed his amber voice.

”It was when she walked back to the booth and collected the three face-up Franklin D. Roosevelt dimes the men had left for her that she realized whose voice she’d missed coming out of the radio tonight, the only one without a band behind it that had ever made her turn up the sound.”


Governor Thomas E. Dewey

The American people in 1948 were still recovering from the mental fatigue and the sorrow of war. It was understandable that they looked at both candidates with jaundiced eyes. They just didn't measure up. Polling showed Dewey well ahead. Newspapers were printed ahead of time with headlines touting Dewey's victory. Republicans were sauntering around brimming with confidence. This reminded me of the most recent election with Mitt Romney despite polling that said they were going to lose were acting like people ready to start measuring for drapes in the oval office. At least in Dewey’s defense he was fooled by what turned out to be very bad polling data. He did improve on his performance against Roosevelt, but still lost rather badly in the electoral college 303 to 189. The spread would have been much worse if J. Strom Thurmond hadn’t won four states in the South as a third party candidate. Truman’s gamble to run against congress rather than against a candidate paid off. He turned out to be a lot feistier than what his opponents thought possible.



Being a presidential political junkie I wanted more politics, but I think to most of the reading population Thomas Mallon showed a deft hand using the election as a backdrop instead of putting it on center stage. He explored the lives of the people of Owosso in a time when people could tell the world was changing very quickly and they were unsure of what their place would be in it. Some could cling to their past, but the majority of people will have to make adjustments and will have to embrace a new President along with a universe that is moving just ever so quicker with every new revolution.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Returning for another Thomas Mallon novel, I hoped to to amazed with a telling story set against the backdrop of a political situation that ties things all together. The year is 1948 and the United States is in presidential election mode. With Truman in the White House, it is time for the electorate to pass judgment on him, as he ascended to the post when FDR died in office. The stage is set and Truman does not seem all that sure that he can pull it off. Things turn to Owosso, Michigan, hometown of the Republican candidate, Thomas Dewey. The locals are gearing up and there are stirrings about the local boy making his way into the Oval Office, going so far as to prepare for being a new ‘must see’ spot for tourists. As the months pass, it is simply a waiting game for the all but coronation of Dewey as POTUS. On the local front, Anne Macmurray is swept up, not in the political fervour, but with two men who seek her heart. One, a wealthy Republican who is as confident as he is determined, seeks to woo Anne, while showing her what connections can do. The other, a former soldier turned United Auto Workers organizer who has a flame burning inside him and seeks to ensure the underdog is never forgotten. As spring and summer turn to autumn, the choice will have to b made. Who will Anne choose and how will she come to the decision? Will Dewey’s momentum be able to carry him into the White House, leaving Truman in the dust? The knowledgeable reader knows the answer to at least one of these, but Mallon is never one to write without a significant twist. A decent piece of fiction with gritty political undertones, though not my favourite of the author’s work.

This is the first time I have sat down to physically read Mallon. The other of his novels I have allowed an audiobook reader guide me, which might be why I am less than enthused. I made my way through this piece, eager for the development of the plot—personal and political—but left feeling less than enthralled. There is surely a great deal of banter in this book, as Owosso residents cheer on their local boy and await his arrival on the campaign trail, but I felt lost in trying to connect with any of the three characters who play roles in this love triangle. Mallon uses long chapters to tell his story and pulls the reader in many directions, peppering politics with post-War American development. A few young characters seek to define themselves throughout the narrative, with a core few mentioned above. It may be I who is at fault for not liking this one, though I have seen others echo my sentiments. Still, I know authors cannot please everyone all the time. I am simply happy this was not the first Mallon I ever tried. I have a few more I would like to attempt down the road. Perhaps I was looking for more bang for my buck. Apt to use in reference to this novel, ‘The buck stops here!’. It most truly did!

Kudos, Mr. Mallon, for an attempt to pull me in. It did not work as well as I would have liked, but I cannot fault you entirely for this.

This book fulfils the February 2020 requirement of the Mind the Bookshelf Gap reading challenge.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A historical novel set in the town where Dewey was born on the eve of his defeat by Truman, in 1948. The pace was leisurely and the characters run of the mill, as well as all being almost impossibly sympathetic. All the same, I'm giving it three stars because I found it enormously entertaining to read--it reminded me of the way I read as a child, entering with great pleasure into another world. I can't tell you why it had that effect, but I certainly enjoyed it!

[Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've just finished reading this. (It's 5:08 a.m. on July 17th, 2008.) I'm going to leave intact what I posted here last week. That will be prefaced with three asterisks. Before leaving you with that old post, I'll just say DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN is, absolutely, the book I wanted it to be. While I know it is not to everyone's tastes, this novel delighted me with its ability to capture America as it was in 1948. Inasmuch as the main characters are exactly the age my parents were at that time, I can say that the book reflects a lot of what I'd learned about that era from listening to my parents' anecdotes. Mallon does not fall into anachronism. his characters talk the way people talked then, they read the books people read then (Thomas Mann's DOCTOR FAUSTUS, James Gould Cozzens's GUARD OF HONOR and, most of all, RAINTREE COUNTY by Ross Lockridge, Jr.) Mallon is not churning out facts. He has a feel for them. This book is very funny. Knowing that Harry Truman won the election of 1948 gives the reader, from the start, a sense of the folly of a whole town throwing itself into a victory celebration for a candidate who is about to lose. If a reader of this book does not know, at the outset, that Truman won, the book will still be pleasurable in the surprise it will offer when the outcome of the election is revealed. While Mallon does not spell out obvious truths, he is not blind to the fact that, as time advances, fewer and fewer readers will come to this book with the familiarity a reader about my age will have with the era it discusses. 1948 is still within living memory and I, born in 1960, grew up hearing about "the man on the wedding cake." DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN was published in 1996, and a lot of people who were alive in 1948 have died in the twelve years which have passed since publication. But i don't think this will date the way much historical fiction does. It has suspense, humor and beauty. Because we have elections every four years in the United States, reading this in an election year makes it seem contemporary. DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN has gone out of print, but you can find it easily at a library or through the internet. Finally, I think this may be one of the last books written on a typewriter. It reads as if it were. The computer has given everyone's prose a liquid quality. DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN has "muscular prose," a phrase one critic has applied to the writings of James Gould Cozzens, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1949 for a 1948 book: GUARD OF HONOR. Thomas Mallon has the universal sweep of the writers of the mid-century, but his prose is lean. I suspect he's a nicer guy than the big guns of 1948. I find this novel humanistic. Okay, now, here's what I wrote last week. ***The title is, of course, a reference to what was once a very famous political photograph. During the Presidential campaign of 1948, most people in the country thought the Republican candidate, Thomas E. Dewey, would defeat President Truman, the Democratic candidate. Truman had become president when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. (He'd been his Vice-president just a few weeks.) FDR had been the most popular president in history. Even though Truman was president as World War Two came to its conclusion, the Allied victory didn't seem to have helped him politically. The Republicans were champing at the bit (and managed to get Congress to pass a law limiting presidents to two terms.) The GOP fully expected to win back the White House now that Roosevelt was dead.
Truman went to bed early on Election night. But, in the pre-dawn hours, he was woken up and told he'd won. He went outside to talk to the press and found that while he had gone to bed early, a major newspaper had been put to bed even earlier. He held up a paper with a screaming headline, and a cameraman took a picture of him roaring with laughter, the newspaper held above his head. The headline was as follows: "Dewey Defeats Truman."
The photograph ran in almost every newspaper in the country two days later. Even his enemies had to admit he deserved to laugh over this one.
So, the title of Thomas Mallon's novel puts you right in 1948, prepares you for something which might be funny and gives you an idea that it might be about over-confidence.
I love this book for the tile. I've started a few times to read it and it looks like my sort of book. It even talks about RAINTREE COUNTY, a book which came out in 1948 and which is a source of fascination for me.
When I finish DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN, I'll give my view of it. I always take note when Thomas Mallon has a new book. He is one of the few writers of historical fiction whom I find really intriguing. He takes chances.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thomas Mallon's historical fiction often strikes me more as writing exercises than compelling fiction. His books on Watergate, McCarthyism and Ronald Reagan are intricately researched and occasionally insightful about their subjects, yet feel listless and non-compelling. His earlier work, Dewey Defeats Truman, is a completely different sort of novel that fails in its own unique way. An episodic look at small town America in 1948, it follows the lives of assorted bland Michiganders navigating the uncertainities of the postwar world, all well being as dull as possible. It's not that Mallon doesn't occasionally invoke the banalities of small town life; if anything he renders it too faithfully, resulting in a novel filled with blood, paper-thin archetypes enacting underwhelming melodramas, occasionally punctuated by tragedy (suicides, love triangles) and frequently interrupted by world events (set in Thomas Dewey's hometown, his presidential contest with Harry Truman intrudes upon the narrative to the point of tedium). Maybe it's intentional: that Mallon wants to show bland, ordinary people trapped into an enacting unfulfilling lives. But why did he have to inflict his tedium on the reader?

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

For at least a year before the 1948 presidential election, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey was almost universally expected to beat the incumbent, former Vice President Harry Truman. (Apparently, even Truman himself thought he would lose.) The title of Thomas Mallon’s brilliant novel about that time was an infamous headline in the Chicago Tribune which wishfully predicted on election night that “Dewey Defeats Truman.”

A pivotal time in our political history

With election year in the background, Mallon spins a tale set in Tom Dewey’s home town, Owosso, Michigan. There he introduces a large cast of local characters, including Dewey’s mother, whose complex interrelationships wax and wane in the course of the novel. Every character is finely drawn, as though grabbed out of memory. Mallon writes with a sure hand about the love triangle among Peter Cox, “a hot young lawyer” who is running for the State Assembly, the beautiful newcomer Anne Macmurray, and an up-and-coming labor leader named Jack Riley. He finds drama in the daily lives of every character in town.

His command of the politics of the time is impressive, too. Mallon does solid research. (He was born three years after the 1948 election.) Set three years after the end of World War II, Dewey Defeats Truman reflects the boundless optimism of the period. In hindsight, we recognize the flip side of the time, as the Cold War intensified with the Berlin blockade and airlift and the fast-accelerating Red Scare at home.

About the author

Thomas Mallon is one of the most gifted interpreters of America’s political history. Dewey Defeats Truman was the first of several insightful novels built around historical figures and events at particular inflection points in our history: the 1948 election, Watergate, and the administration of Ronald Reagan.

[Geo Forman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the small town in Michigan where Thomas Dewey was born, this a book with a bit of nostalgia and a bit of romance. Everyone is excited about their hometown boy becoming the next president. City fathers are planning on improvements so as not to disappoint the flood of tourists to be expected over the coming years as the hometown of a president. A new gal in town is heavily pursued by 2 very eligible bachelors, one a hot shot republican lawyer running for state senator and the other a "nice guy" labor organizer. Anne works at the local bookstore while trying to write her first novel. She is drawn to the lawyer by his good looks and his personality but is falling for the more plain-spoken unionized. With a trip to Mackinac Island the thrown in, this is a fun look back to small town Michigan suddenly in the nation's spotlight.

[Marty Greenwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, not great. Read it at night and tired most of the time. Good flawed characters but the story was slow, especially since you know the outcome.

[Cammy Lowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow start but enjoyed the historical aspect.

[Barb · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Slice of life" kind of story.

[Glenn Richard]

"Yes, there it was at last, a sleek green convertible, like a new dollar bill, carrying Thomas E. Dewey into the stadium ahead of the parade. Real roars now, at exactly 10:00. Peter looked down at the candidate, who was standing as tall as his elevator shoes would allow, accepting (the word had never been more accurate) the cheers of the crowd. The cars of the reception committee motored in his wake, Al Jackson running beside them like a welterweight doing roadwork; he wouldn't be cooped up in a car when the nine-float prototype of his personal World's Fair was rolling in."

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One rule of reading is that even if you don't like a book by an author, that doesn't mean you should abstain from trying another. Although not a fan of Mallon's Watergate I was absolutely charmed by this novel, the characters are likable, the plot absorbing and the ending is satisfying. I loved the sprinkling of historical facts that provided texture to the fictive depiction of Owasso, Michigan 1948. I'll remember these characters for a long time!

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's about the journey in this book, which I found interesting -- until the end, which in some ways was puzzling. It seemed to wrap up fast and in ways that I admittedly didn't expect or fully understand. As with most historical fiction, I wonder how much (if any of it, besides the election) was true. With a little research I'm sure I could figure that out!

[Frank Duke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written (and well-researched) book describing the months before the election of 1948 in Thomas Dewey's Michigan hometown. Mallon definitely captured the mood of a small town hoping its favorite son will win the presidency. The various subplots in the book can be a little disconcerting, but over all a very good book.

[Amanda D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting. Growing up in Missouri, I never realized it was even a close race between the two. A fun story to read, but at times I was a little lost regarding the title referring so much to the candidates when there wasn’t a ton of talk about the candidates.

[Sue Whitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Residents and politicos of Dewey's home town await what most consider a certainty.

[James Hutchisson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good old-fashioned novel of middle America in one of its golden ages, with palpable historical details that really transport you back to another time.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked it.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Thomas Mallon blows me away.

This novel, which takes place in Owosso, Michigan - Thomas Dewey's hometown - is a wonderful mixture of historical fact and incredible fiction. Mallon always manages to find a fictional parallel to the historical events which guide the story.

In this case, the residents of Owosso are preparing to become a national tourist site when their native son is elected, as everyone in the US knows he WILL be, president of the United States. Although he lost in his bid against FDR, the little haberdasher (yes, he actually was) Truman is crude and should never have been president in the first place. Too bad FDR died and left him the farm.

Entwined with the story of the new resident's desire to build a Dewey Walk along the river (with murals portraying the president's rise to the top, eventually with townspeople acting the parts of the people portrayed in each mural) is the story of the "Colonel" and his friends, one of whom is a suicide for love; a young college literature graduate who has come to the town because she wants the feel of this type of All-American town for the novel she plans to write; a young WWII vet who is now an UAW organizer (and an ardent Democrat); a young man of privilege who picked Owosso on the map to reside in in order to win his first election to government; two teenagers who long to break the solid wall of dullness and flee from their hometown; and a high school science teacher with a secret round out the characters.

Anne, the young literature graduate, works in a bookstore and is courted both by Peter, the rich playboy, and Jack, the UAW organizer. Peter is rare, danger, not tied to this small stultifying town, but Jack is steady, reliable, the sturdy Midwestern type. Who will she chose? Who will the nation choose?

We know the answer to the last. The New York Times stuck its foot in its mouth by bringing out an extra edition with the now priceless headline DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. However.....

Mallon is one of the smoothest writers I have ever read. It helps to have a knowledge of the historical period that he writes about so that the parallels between the nonfiction and the fiction are clear, but it's not absolutely necessary. I enjoy it mostly BECAUSE I know the historical periods and what will happen. But Mallon makes the fiction side seem almost as real as the real side.

With his smooth, liquid language and his blending of history and fiction, Mallon is well worth reading.

[Jill Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Mallon's novel, "Dewey Defeats Truman", is a marvelous look at a small town in the throes of change. Set in 1948 in Owosso, Michigan - the real hometown of Thomas Dewey - the townspeople are transitioning from the war years to the Cold War years. Politically, the small town is basically populated by Republicans - other than a few furtive Democrats - and the summer of 1948 seems to be the ending of the Democrats' hold on the White House. Dewey, nominated in the convention in Philadelphia is expected to sweep Harry S Truman out of office. Sure thing...put your money down on it.

But politics are not the only thing happening in Owosso. Love is blooming between all sorts of couples and the pain of the war years and the losses endured by some townspeople are coming to a head. One woman - a widow - cannot accept the loss of her oldest son, gunned down at Malmedy during the Battle of the Bulge by German forces, and she copes by attending funerals of soldiers' whose bodies have been returned to the US. Her remaining son, a teenager, is of little interest to her and he is stifling in the unquiet household. A young woman, Anne Macmurray, has settled in the town after graduating from near-by University of Michigan; she's hoping to write a novel and a small town seems to offer her the best setting. Anne is being courted by two men - one a Democrat and the other Republican - and she's having a hard time making up her mind which to accept. Other events that summer include a sharkster coming to town, hoping to set up Owosso as a tourist destination after Thomas Dewey's inevitable electoral win ("win", hell, it'll be a landslide!) in November. But those plans are upsetting town residents who don't want their peaceful town turned upside down in an attempt to grab onto the Dewey coattails. Some secrets will also be literally unearthed if the tourist project goes ahead...as well as other secrets of doomed relationships.

Thomas Mallon has written a novel that begs for a sequel. I'd love to find out what happened to the characters Mallon has so skillfully developed. But since this book was published in 1997, I suppose Mallon won't revisit Owosso, Michigan. Too bad...

[Mary's Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are there an infinite number of possible futures? Perhaps there are. In "Dewey Defeats Truman", Thomas Mallon presents a small town on the cusp of history.
Owosso, Michigan is the hometown of Thomas Dewey, Republican candidate for President against Harry Truman. Truman is so unpopular in 1948 that Dewey looks like a sure thing. The townspeople of Owosso try to figure out what the rise of their native son will mean for them. Some anticipate business opportunities and a "Dewey Walk", a tribute to his rise in politics, is proposed. Romance is also in the air that summer of 1948. Anne Macmurray, an intelligent, beautiful girl working in the local bookstore, is being wooed by Peter Cox, the cocky young lawyer running for the state senate, and Jack Riley, a leader in the local auto union.
As the date of the election approaches, a kind of madness sweeps through the town. Tim, a young man who desperately wants to escape Owosso, flies off in a biplane at the air show, disappearing into myth. Frank Sherwood, the science teacher at the high school, quivers with the secret that he holds. And Anne, a Truman supporter at heart, must choose which young man, and which future, will be hers.
As we now know, Truman pulled off one of the great upsets of U.S. political history. When the day after the election dawns, the residents of Owosso face a different future than they had expected.
Mallon drops in details of life in 1948--movies playing in town, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon both running for office, popular books--to give a sense of what characters in 1948 would have known. He does less well in blending the various strands of his plot. Some elements just become tiresome, and others are barely sketched in. He also holds his characters at a remove, making them seem like puppets.
I chose this book to read as a lead-up to the election of 2012. As I write this, the polls are so close that there is no certainty who will win. So I feel a kinship with the residents of Owosso.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dewey Defeats Truman was written as an historical novel. It seems to be informed, not as much about Truman or Dewey, as it was by the super novel Peyton Place, the novel that would herald in a new Era as the Era was happening. This book by Thomas Mallon was published decades after Peyton Place, & the focus is the knot-tightening grasp that the birthplace of former Michigan resident Thomas Dewey had on its inhabitants. Owosso, Michigan is the main character of this small town & missing people seem to create a far stronger presence than those who are 'alive & well.' There is a small book store, but Dorothy Malone/Constance McKenzie does not work there. Keeping the characters of Peyton Place alive & well & distinguishable from each other was easy. Grace Metalious did all the work. In this novel, all I had to keep me turning the pages was wondering what the townspeople, the background, would do. Would they ever come to life? In the end, a recovered body buried 50 years before the 1948 Presidential Election was reburied & a run-a-way boy returned home.
Coming from a small town that died on it's feet, I can imagine what the place that had real businesses must look like now--one antiques store after several boarded up former businesses...& the Walmart that squeezed what was left after the death of Post World War II prosperity out of the business district. But, that is another novel & another Era.

[Katharine Grubb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great little period piece that reads like a movie you would watch on ABC or something. Loved the stories and the characters. However, I HATED the ending, and seriously considered not finishing with just five pages left, I was so upset. Guess that means that Mallon had me hooked? :) Would have been a great read around an election time. Inspiring. Young people who actually put effort in to care about an election, get to know the candidates, and get involved in the election proceedings- sigh. What a time.

[Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I probably liked this more than it deserved based solely on the fact it was set in the town in which I grew up. I'm meant to understand that Thomas Mallon is a well-regarded author, so it could also be that he's just so talented I was being delighted without realizing why. My memory is that it's a fairly straightforward love story set in small-town Owosso, MI, birthplace of Thomas Dewey. That's all I got. If you grew up in Owosso, you might want to read this for novelty's sake, otherwise, I don't know I have enough memory of it to recommend on any other basis.

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Maybe because I'm a Michigan boy and its set in Owosso? Perhaps. But I found the characters, for the most part, compelling and the various plots intriguing, save for the central romance, which left me a bit cold. But Mallon lives up to the the high regard in which I hold him.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly a fun read, though a bit slow in places. I wasn't convinced of the main character's change of heart at the end. Good writing, well-drawn characters, an interesting glimpse into life in this small town in the 1940s.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but drags quite a bit in part. Captures the serious, but innocent mood of the late 1940s (nationalism with a bit of lingering pre-war optimism.) Nice romance, but not a book for people looking for an intellectual challenge.

[Scott E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dewey Defeats Truman paints a picture of late 40s America, but doesn't delve much deeper than the first layer of paint. "Quaint" is the word that comes to mind. I enjoyed it enough to read more by Mallon, I just wish this had more teeth.
Rating: 3.4

[Helene · Rating 2 out of 5]

The election info and the location were interesting but the characters just didn't keep me involved. There was no direct connection to the campaign and their stories were just boring. Couldn't finish the book (kept falling asleep) so maybe there was more in the ending.

[Lillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was interesting, particularly since I remember the campaign very well between Dewey and Truman. I felt the book had too many sub-plots which were distracting. Still, generally a good read.