Lucky Bastard

I only became aware of this author when I read his recent obituary. It portrayed him as prescient, having foretold in fiction an American president who rises to power by colluding with Soviet intelligence. I found the novel to be more prosaic than I would have expected. For one thing it relies greatly on sex in the form of blackmail, infidelity and lust to drive the plot. More importantly the author clearly was oriented towards a conservative, patriotic view of the world.

This is one of those novels where the reader constantly senses with justification a quantum acceleration of plot development is in the offing, then a growing awareness that the pages still unread are dwindling and finally an abrupt ending with a lingering sense that show more there could have been more to it. show less

Jack Adams, who believes himself the bastard son of Jack Kennedy, is recruited by Soviet agents Dmitri and Dmitri's superior Peter as a sleeper. They plan to assist him to attain the Presidency.
Again McCarry carries off a fascinating espionage tale, which although comic in some sense is outrageously accurate and revealing in its view of recent American political history.

A Clintonesque young man who is a KGB spy becomes President of the US. In retrospect, this feels dated, a product of the stupidly overheated atmosphere around the Clinton Presidency that served as such an effective distraction from the real problems of the world.

Grest