Her 1,100-word review posted that evening.
Wait, how can you read a 784-page book and write a considered take on it all in one afternoon?
In a 2004 column ... Slate's Jack Shafer looked into the instant-review phenomenon after several critics pumped out their responses to Bill Clinton's My Life a mere 24 hours after getting their copies.
The secret: Skip and skim.
One writer told him, "Did I read the whole thing? No." Another writer said he had read the whole book, but with this caveat: "Closely enough to take a short quiz? No.""
~
With that in mind, I present my review of
Rick Robinson's first novel:
The Maximum Contribution
“In
The Maximum Contribution, Rick Robinson has vividly captured the essence of the deals that make…or more than likely... break so many DC politicians.
The 224 pages of
The Maximum Contribution (ISBN 0929915690) fly by. This is a real page turner and a hardback bargain at $24.95. You'll want to reserve your copy now! Delivery September, 2007.
Do you want to understand Washington?
Read this book.”
--Rudy Maxa, former Washington Post investigative reporter.
"Rick Robinson? Yeah. I remember that guy."
--P. J. O'Rourke, author
Some may think a novel about the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance tedious. But The Maximum Contribution is really about power and the games people play to get it - and keep it.
The author is one of the foremost experts on KRS 121 AND 121A; Section 150 of the Kentucky Constitution; and KRS 6.811 which does not expressly prohibit a lobbyist from contributing to political parties, thus allowing a lobbyist to contribute to a party's executive committee a "maximum" of $2,500 per calendar year -- a topic that is all too real in 2007!
The Maximum Contribution elevates the Kentucky Code of Legislative Ethics to new heights as a metaphor for life; men, women, the sharing of expectations - and the inevitable disappointments.
At the same time, Robinson weaves an engrossing tale of a small town councilman, Richard Thompson, who aspires to the congressional seat in Kentucky's 4th district; fending off corrupt politicians along the way.
The young congressional hopeful learns the ropes at the hands of his mentor, an elderly senator, but ultimately, uses that rope to hang him.
The public sees front page articles on politics daily. But Robinson reveals the policy battles that rage beneath the headlines and beneath the sheets. For better or worse, the earnest young candidate cavorts with his sarcastic sidekick, a political humorist, thorough the urban side streets and suburban byways. Suddenly, life on the steamy summer streets of Washington and Newport take on a new meaning, becoming both human and understandable.
The strains that the protagonist's position puts on his marriage and the ethical dilemmas raised by his conflicted loyalties, as well as the seductiveness of power, make the novel more than just a good bedtime read. The graphic passages of seduction and domination with the red-headed stripper he calls "Honey," let the reader know Rick Robinson has been there. He has fathered!
Anyone who has served at the highest-levels of northern Kentucky politics will recognize much of their own experience woven into the book. And Robinson names names! Several character's names are anagrams of a real life politicos; thus a careful reading reveals secret predilections that Gary Moore, Jim Hamberg, Ruth Eger, Jim Bunning, Pat Crowley and Roxanne Qualls would have preferred remained secret.
The tensions between diplomacy and "hard power" play out in the bedrooms of Burlington and Ludlow, where "maximum contribution" takes on a completely new meaning.
Righteous by day, hungry by night, Robinson describes political entanglements with hyper campaign manager, Michael Griffith, and the gun-toting union officials, that cross party lines, lines of cocaine, and suspect line-ups.
Reminiscent of Grisham's best the plots,
The Maximum Contribution is a well crafted slice of human drama that is all too real. The young protagonist is caught unawares by the Republican party's policy game, but slowly, sometimes painfully, learns to use an OAG advisory opinion to wrest control over his mentor's power and turn it to his own purposes.
The Maximum Contribution is not only a fun read, but because it was written by someone who has lived life as a flame beneath the cauldron of politics in Washington DC and northern Kentucky, it also provides an authentic insider's glimpse of how "all these little towns" really work.
Robinson also surprises as he reveals his tender, more thoughtful side. The passages portraying the protagonist's interaction with nature as he listens to Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" on his iPod, while trying to work through his problems, are particularly lyrical.
The Maximum Contribution is an insiders gripping tale, and perhaps, a portent of things to come.
I can't wait to actually read this book.
~
Richard Thompson is an affable Northern Kentucky councilman who chooses his restaurants based on the quality of their pork chops, listens to the '70s music of Meat Loaf and aspires to be the congressman from Kentucky's 4th District.
Rick Robinson is a Fort Mitchell attorney who maintains that Covington's Chez Nora has the best pork chops in town. He has talked to the musician Meat Loaf personally and in 1998, he made an unsuccessful bid for the 4th District U.S. House seat.
In Robinson's soon-to-be released first book, "The Maximum Contribution,'' the protagonist, Thompson, finds himself running for the 4th District seat, as well as fending off corrupt politicians and gun-toting union officials, and trying to explain how he wound up in bed with a red-headed stripper.
While Robinson never found himself the target of nefarious politicians and union officials, or the victim of a sexual set-up, he nevertheless mined inspiration for the book from his personal experience in politics.
And that experience has been extensive, starting in 1986 when Robinson and his wife, Linda, went to Washington to work for two Republican House members - he for Jim Bunning of Southgate and she for Connie Mack of Florida.
More recently, Robinson worked on the campaigns of Kenton County Family Court Judge Chris Mehling and former 3rd District U.S. Congresswoman Anne Northup in her unsuccessful bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination last spring.
In between was Robinson's own run for Congress 12 years ago.
Many of those experiences, both in Washington and on the campaign trail, led to the creation of the book's two central characters.
Thompson's character allowed him to write about what he'd learned from being a candidate and watching candidates. The character of Michael Griffith, Thompson's campaign manager, allowed Robinson to write what he'd learned while running campaigns.
"Really, both of them are me," said Robinson.
He said he lives life with a soundtrack running in his head, and "The Maximum Contribution" practically has one of its own. The book opens with a line about Meat Loaf, one of Robinson's favorite musicians, whose "Bat Out of Hell" Thompson happens to be listening to while driving along the AA Highway. Warren Zevon and John Prine references are also vintage Robinson.
"When I'm involved in a campaign I'll have two of three songs that I play over and over again, constantly," he said.
And then there are the pork chops, evident in chapter 49, when Thompson dines with a friend:
"Thompson turned and faced the man behind the bar. 'Jimmy, send over the regular.' Jimmy Gilliece and his wife Pati were the owners of Chez Nora and he didn't even have to take their order. It was always the same. Both men judged a restaurant on the quality of its pork chops, and Chez Nora served up the best pork chop in town, a thick cut presented on a bed of mashed potatoes and covered in a warm mango salsa."
As it turns out, a political thriller wasn't the book Robinson set out to write.
"I had always wanted to write a coming-of-age book, but I couldn't get past the third chapter. I guess I'd never come of age," Robinson said with a laugh.
It was friend and client Tom Saelinger, president of First Financial Bank in Hebron, who suggested that Robinson take the stories he's always told about politics and the campaign trail and wrap them around a theme. Robinson began work in November of 2004 and by the following January he was 150 pages into the story.
"He'd come in the office and I'd say, 'What did you write last night? I want to see what happens next,'" said Robinson's law partner, Jeff Landen, who also lent a critical eye to the manuscript throughout the story's development.
But cranking out a first novel, Robinson learned, was no easy task.
"A very good author told me, "Now, put it down for 30 days and come back to it, and everything will be fresh again," Robinson said.
But not being a seasoned writer, Robinson said it took him 10 months to get back to his manuscript. As he wrote, his wife edited.
"My wife kept coming back to me and saying, 'Oh, that character would never do that,'" Robinson said. "Make sure if you write a book, show it to your wife."
His initial plan was to self-publish, then give the book as gifts to close friends for Christmas, but once it was completed he decided to see what publishers thought of it. A couple of rejections later he was almost ready to go back to his original plan.
"I thought, well this is it," said Robinson. But it wasn't.
Robinson sent the manuscript on to 30 more publishing houses and three came back asking for full manuscripts.
Cathy Teets, president of Headline Books, a West Virginia-based publishing company, said she sent the manuscript to several of her "best readers," to see if there was interest. "It came back with glowing comments," Teets says.
After meeting with Teets, Robinson decided "The Maximum Contribution" had found a publisher.
It will be released in late-September by Publisher Page, an imprint of Headline Books.
Next up for Robinson was finding out what other political junkies thought of the book.
"When I started his book, I could not put it down," said local columnist Don McNay. "I stayed up half the night finishing it. It draws on his experience in Congress, but is a drama that reminds me of a John Grisham novel. A little bit of sex and rock and roll, but not too much. It would be PG rated."
McNay, who first met Robinson when they were students at Eastern Kentucky University, provided his friend with a blurb for the book, as did author and journalist P.J. O'Rourke.
O'Rourke and Robinson met 18 years ago when Robinson was working on Capitol Hill and O'Rourke was in town working on a book on government that would eventually become "Parliament of Whores."
"My 15 minutes of fame was that I got an acknowledgement in P.J.'s book," Robinson said. "The Bunning office would help with fact checking and we've remained friends."
Another friend, Ludlow artist Kevin Kelly, worked on the book's cover.
"The cover you see is not one he designed, but he helped direct the flow," Robinson said.
Accompanying the book will be an interactive Web site that will give readers extra morsels that aren't in the book. And for readers who want to follow Thompson beyond "The Maximum Contribution," his foray into political drama continues. Teets has already signed Robinson for his second book, and he's already 12,000 words into. An early glimpse: it finds Thompson elected.
As for Robinson, the idea of becoming a candidate again holds little appeal, which suits his wife just fine.
"I'll take an author any day," she said.
~
Good luck Rick !
Rick's first effort is an insider's political thriller in the tradition of other slightly more famous politician/authors Newt Gingrich, Jimmy Carter, Benjamin Disraeli & Gary Hart.
