The Last Election

Starred review from July 3, 2023
Former Democratic presidential candidate Yang (The War on Normal People) teams up with novelist Marche (The Hunger of the Wolf) to craft a frighteningly plausible “what-if” scenario in this taut political thriller. Billionaire and Maverick Party presidential candidate Cooper Sherman is running on a platform that emphasizes universal basic income and ranked-choice voting. But as his insurgent campaign gains momentum, the entire system of American governance may be under threat: an anonymous source has shared audio on a New York Times tip line suggesting that high-ranking military leaders are planning a coup. The conspirators believe that the next presidential election could lead to chaos, with the Republican candidate winning an electoral college victory despite losing the popular vote by millions, and only the armed forces can avert bedlam. As Times reporter Martha Kass fights to get her editors to publish the story, and Cooper’s campaign manager, Mikey, wrestles with his boss’s potential complicity in the ensuing disorder, Yang and Marche masterfully ratchet the tension to near-unbearable levels. The outcome, in this worthy 21st-century update of the 1962 classic Seven Days in May, is just possible enough to give readers nightmares. Agents: (for Yang) David Larabell, CAA; (for Marche) P.J. Mark, Janklow, Nesbit & Assoc.

July 15, 2023
In former presidential candidate Yang's first novel, doomsday looms for American democracy in the months leading up to the 2024 election. No one is safe in America anymore. The latest victims of violence include a female Supreme Court justice shot to death in Washington, D.C., and a Democratic state senator gunned down in Michigan. At the Republican convention in Milwaukee, fighting between anarchists and the Proud Boys leaves three dead and 17 wounded. The only hope for turning things around is underdog third-party candidate Cooper Sherman, a charismatic, straight-talking billionaire running on the "Unfuck America" ticket. Never mind those sex clubs he once frequented. "Scandal is no longer a barrier to a candidate's success," according to his campaign manager, Mikey Ricci. "It's a requirement." And with the Joint Chiefs of Staff poised to seize power in the increasingly likely event that the election goes off the rails, there are graver concerns than a candidate's peccadilloes. Not that evidence of the secret plot will be reported in the New York Times. "They'll find reasons not to run it," thinks the tip-line supervisor who discovered evidence of the plot. Though the novel has the markings of satire, details--including candidates hiring "selfie consultants" and Kim Kardashian conferring with Matthew McConaughey about his "gun-responsibility social media strategy"--are too believable to laugh at. Yang says Marche "did the heavy lifting writing this novel" and that the "stories and recollections" of Zach Graumann, Yang's campaign manager, "form the backbone of this book." While their collective contributions don't cut very deep, their zinging broadsides make for lively and unsettling reading. A corrosive work of speculative fiction that may put readers even more on edge than they already are.

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