metche

I read Democracy and was absorbed by it. Adams's book is a juicy, provocative example of the old proverb "the more things change, the more they stay the same" applied to American political power. Written in 1880, (until 1918 published anonymously) the book has an incredibly modern feel to it; the same political perils that haunt our democracy now -- influence, money, power, sex scandal - were alive and well in 1880 too. It's not simply a political treatise though; the characters are incredibly well drawn, the plot is scandalously fun; Henry Adams wrote good, thought-provoking fiction (or at least he did in Democracy). The fact that the novel was published anonymously seems to prove that much of what Henry Adams was writing was based on truth; he didn't just invent characters and plot, but obviously made use of the people, places, and events with which he was familiar. My only let-down was the end; it felt melodramatic, and the "scandal" that Senator Ratcliffe created for himself did not seem to be all that scandalous (perhaps after so many political scandals I've become jaded). Even then, it was a fantastic book; I wonder why it's never been made into a movie?

2023-02-21 16:21