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True Believers: A Novel by Kurt Andersen
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True Believers: A Novel (original 2012; edition 2012)

by Kurt Andersen (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
25138105,387 (3.37)23
Fiction. Literature. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post ? San Francisco Chronicle
In True Believers, Kurt Andersen??the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Heyday and Turn of the Century??delivers his most powerful and moving novel yet. Dazzling in its wit and effervescent insight, this kaleidoscopic tour de force of cultural observation and seductive storytelling alternates between the present and the 1960s??and indelibly captures the enduring impact of that time on the ways we live now.
Karen Hollander is a celebrated attorney who recently removed herself from consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her reasons have their roots in 1968??an episode she??s managed to keep secret for more than forty years. Now, with the imminent publication of her memoir, she??s about to let the world in on that shocking secret??as soon as she can track down the answers to a few crucial last questions.
As junior-high-school kids back in the early sixties, Karen and her two best friends, Chuck and Alex, roamed suburban Chicago on their bikes looking for intrigue and excitement. Inspired by the exotic romance of Ian Fleming??s James Bond novels, they acted out elaborate spy missions pitting themselves against imaginary Cold War villains. As friendship carries them through childhood and on to college??in a polarized late-sixties America riven by war and race as well as sex, drugs, and rock and roll??the bad guys cease to be the creatures of make-believe. Caught up in the fervor of that extraordinary and uncanny time, they find themselves swept into a dangerous new game with the highest possible stakes.
Today, only a handful of people are left who know what happened. As Karen reconstructs the past and reconciles the girl she was then with the woman she is now, finally sharing pieces of her secret past with her national-security-cowboy boyfriend and activist granddaughter, the power of memory and history and luck become clear. A resonant coming-of-age story and a thrilling political mystery, True Believers is Kurt Andersen??s most ambitious novel to date, introducing a brilliant, funny, and irresistible new heroine to contemporary fiction.
Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader??s Circle for author chats and more.
Praise for True Believers

 
??Funny, fiendishly smart.???San Francisco Chronicle
 
??A great American novel.???Vanity Fair
 
??A big, swinging novel . . . [a] colorful story . . . This could be the most rambunctious meeting your book club will have for a long time.???The Washington Post
 
??Intelligent and insightful . . . Think The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Atonement, a ??60s-era female Holden Caulfield. . . . Andersen is an agile storyteller. . . . [There are] witty, occasionally even profound observations about the ??60s and today.???USA Today
 
??So epic: Part thriller, part coming-of-age tale, the novel alternates between the present and the 1960s, capturing some of America??s most pivotal moments in history like a time capsule.???Marie Claire
 
??This is an ambitious and remarkable novel, wonderfully voiced, about memory, secrets, guilt, and the dangers of certitude. Moreover, it asks e
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Member:MHanover10
Title:True Believers: A Novel
Authors:Kurt Andersen (Author)
Info:Random House (2012), 466 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading, Wishlist, To read, Read but unowned, Favorites
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Tags:to-read

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True Believers by Kurt Andersen (2012)

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» See also 23 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 38 (next | show all)
Karen Hollander has a terrible secret, but it doesn't seem to have held her back. Pity that she's taken herself out of consideration for a Supreme Court appointment. As she decides to tell all, very little seems at risk and her recollections suggest she and her friends have led charmed lives, going back to their James Bond playground games at Locust Junior High in Wilmette.

So there are reasons not to care for this crowd as they're drawn into real-life spy games. They're bonafide North Shore snots destined for the Ivy League and the Establishment, and rather neatly so. (Aren't they a bit too precocious reading Ian Fleming stories in middle school? Was Locust even open when they were first on the block to watch "Dr. No"?)

Yet I'll give Kurt Andersen a pass on his research lapses because he gives his characters the humanity to be worth following. Andersen also cleverly sets up his reveal with some present-day spycraft as Karen tries to find out if the feds have the goods on her, and builds suspense with suggestions that when Karen says trust her to tell all, the lady doth protest too much.

His novel presented a few different ways to look at this week's torrent of real-life revelations on government surveillance. I freely volunteer my reading habits on Goodreads and in blog but would be horrified if detectives tapped my library records. So what exactly is a secret in a narcissistic age? And if the issue is merely what I choose to disclose, how reliable is that narrative?
  rynk | Jul 11, 2021 |
This was one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I've ever had. Karen Hollander recants the story of her life and chronicles the years she was a teenager and a new adult - the mid 60's to the mid 70's. The thing is that she is exactly my age. So her years were the same as mine with the same events and many of the same feelings about them.

Kurt Andersen paints those years just perfectly and amazingly credibly through a female voice. Reading this story was like remembering and being reminded of a time long ago that was critical to my own life.

Plus, it was just, flat, an excellent story. ( )
  susandennis | Jun 5, 2020 |
It's 2013. Karen Hollander, a 65-year-old law professor and well-known author and legal TV pundit, has taken herself out of consideration to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat. The reason? She has lived in fear for decades of something rash she involved herself in during her radical student days. and though she has avoided scrutiny until know, surely, she believes, a Supreme Court vetting would uncover it.

And in response, to get the monkey finally off her back, she decides to write a tell-all memoir revealing her secret.

Karen Hollander is my contemporary. I lived through the times her memoir covers. And that certainly played a role in my enjoyment of this novel. Furthermore, I enjoyed Karen's interplay with her granddaughter as the two generations try to understand one another. (They relate very well, by the way.) I also couldn't help resonating with the fact that young Karen and her friends had a James Bond fetish, which captured me as well "back in the day" of the Cold War with Dr. No and From Russian With Love.

There is a dynamic to the story that moves it along. Only is it slowly revealed what secret Karen was hiding over her lifetime--it turns out to be something pretty far-fetched, but young radicals did pursue some crazy schemes in the '60s. And there's also a mystery to her past that even Karen must solve: with her prominence, why hasn't anyone discovered her secret sooner. Something's fishy there, and in the course of doing her memoir she uses her networks to uncover it.

Karen was someone I was pleased to meet, and the story pulled me along. I recommend it. ( )
  kvrfan | Aug 19, 2016 |
How it felt to be 18 in 1968. I was more on the hippie side of the spectrum and these kids are more on the SDS side, but I recognized the ferociousness of their anger. Remarkable, powerfully written evocation of the era by a guy who was 14 at the time. ( )
  ChrisNewton | Mar 18, 2016 |
Vietnam, 60s/70s, LBJ, SDS, LSD, marijuana and college – hmm, sound familiar? This book was so much fun to read for me having come from a generation close to the fictional autobiographer’s of _True Believers_. And I could definitely relate to playing James Bond with others my own age just like her too. Andersen has written a story rich with character and very true to the time. Not laugh-out-loud funny most of the time, it nevertheless is filled with humor and pokes fun at today whilst wallowing in the redolent past. ( )
  dbsovereign | Jan 26, 2016 |
Showing 1-5 of 38 (next | show all)
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Fiction. Literature. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post ? San Francisco Chronicle
In True Believers, Kurt Andersen??the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Heyday and Turn of the Century??delivers his most powerful and moving novel yet. Dazzling in its wit and effervescent insight, this kaleidoscopic tour de force of cultural observation and seductive storytelling alternates between the present and the 1960s??and indelibly captures the enduring impact of that time on the ways we live now.
Karen Hollander is a celebrated attorney who recently removed herself from consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her reasons have their roots in 1968??an episode she??s managed to keep secret for more than forty years. Now, with the imminent publication of her memoir, she??s about to let the world in on that shocking secret??as soon as she can track down the answers to a few crucial last questions.
As junior-high-school kids back in the early sixties, Karen and her two best friends, Chuck and Alex, roamed suburban Chicago on their bikes looking for intrigue and excitement. Inspired by the exotic romance of Ian Fleming??s James Bond novels, they acted out elaborate spy missions pitting themselves against imaginary Cold War villains. As friendship carries them through childhood and on to college??in a polarized late-sixties America riven by war and race as well as sex, drugs, and rock and roll??the bad guys cease to be the creatures of make-believe. Caught up in the fervor of that extraordinary and uncanny time, they find themselves swept into a dangerous new game with the highest possible stakes.
Today, only a handful of people are left who know what happened. As Karen reconstructs the past and reconciles the girl she was then with the woman she is now, finally sharing pieces of her secret past with her national-security-cowboy boyfriend and activist granddaughter, the power of memory and history and luck become clear. A resonant coming-of-age story and a thrilling political mystery, True Believers is Kurt Andersen??s most ambitious novel to date, introducing a brilliant, funny, and irresistible new heroine to contemporary fiction.
Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader??s Circle for author chats and more.
Praise for True Believers

 
??Funny, fiendishly smart.???San Francisco Chronicle
 
??A great American novel.???Vanity Fair
 
??A big, swinging novel . . . [a] colorful story . . . This could be the most rambunctious meeting your book club will have for a long time.???The Washington Post
 
??Intelligent and insightful . . . Think The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Atonement, a ??60s-era female Holden Caulfield. . . . Andersen is an agile storyteller. . . . [There are] witty, occasionally even profound observations about the ??60s and today.???USA Today
 
??So epic: Part thriller, part coming-of-age tale, the novel alternates between the present and the 1960s, capturing some of America??s most pivotal moments in history like a time capsule.???Marie Claire
 
??This is an ambitious and remarkable novel, wonderfully voiced, about memory, secrets, guilt, and the dangers of certitude. Moreover, it asks e

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