1994: a novel of politics

by Jack Miller

It's 1994, and the Republican Revolution is on its way. Democratic Party strategist, Melissa Carnes, a fierce, combative woman in the male-dominated world of high politics, heads to her home state of Ohio to resuscitate the floundering Senate campaign of Kyle Porter, a successful entrepreneur running for public office for the first time. Confident and professionally successful, Mel nonetheless wrestles with personal doubts and the legacy of her dead mother as she handles office intrigue, a looming scandal, and an undisciplined candidate.

An intimate portrait of the power struggles both great and small that interweave the insular world of election campaigns, 1994 provides an unblinking look into the high stakes battles of a U.S. Senate race as experienced by a 29 year-old woman fighting to maintain the respect and obedience of her colleagues, balance life and career, rediscover her commitment to a better world, and revenge herself against an opposing campaign manager who raped a friend of hers.

293 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 14, 2019

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.

Other authors publishing under this name are:

Jack Miller, Sports
John "Jack" Miller, Novelist, Ex Airforce
Jack Miller
Jack Miller, Business, Real estate, Investment
Jack Miller
Jack Miller, Comics

Reviews

[Simon Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not gonna lie I had to read this book for school which is usually a sign that a book will be not super entertaining but I was proven wrong. I would highly recommend giving this book a read if you’re interested in political science and like a surprisingly complex read. I found it really interesting how the author mixes together The stress of a campaign trail with the feminist protagonist dealing with the death of her mom and a budding relationship with a campaign reporter. I found myself sincerely getting invested in the characters and will recommend this book in the future.

[Kyle Reid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished this. Took me freaking forever to get through it. Full disclosure - I read this for a class and the author is the professor who assigned it.

Unfortunately the novel just isn’t interesting enough to keep me wanting to come back to it. All of the major “plot twists” are kind of just there for the sake of moving the plot forward and the whole plot feels a little disconnected. The characters other than the main character are pretty shallow and even then, the main character is pretty shallow too. She has a drinking problem, but it honestly feels like the drinking problem is there to just give her a flaw, there's nothing that comes from it in terms of character development or growth, she just kind of has a drinking problem and it's brought up a lot in the novel but never in a way that makes me feel like it's necessary for the plot. The book is also written in third person but probably should’ve been written in the first person. That’s just a nitpick though lol

[Maxwell · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is a really awful book, riddled with poorly written sentences and lack luster content.