Jon Pepper's political farce Run Robbie Run arrives as a razor-sharp satire of American democracy in terminal decline - and it's wickedly funny.
Set during a fictional presidential race, the novel follows two spectacularly unfit candidates: Dewey Fenwick, an 87-year-old former president who can barely stay conscious long enough to recognize his own campaign staff, and Robbie Crowe, a lazy, self-absorbed billionaire who stumbles into the nomination without earning a single vote.
Pepper's comic gifts are immediately on display. The opening scene, in which campaign aides frantically try to rouse Dewey from a Golden Girls dream before television journalists arrive, is a masterclass in political absurdity. But the novel's real engine is Robbie - a man so thoroughly unprepared for the presidency that when asked about his vision for America, he hums a few bars of What a Wonderful World and tells his aide to write it down.
The satire cuts in all directions. The party machine, corrupt billionaire puppet-masters, a fawning media, campus radicals planning "mostly peaceful" firebombings at the Chicago convention - no faction escapes Pepper's pen unscathed. The fictional surveillance program "America's Just Rewards," essentially a social credit system dressed up in loyalty-points marketing, provides the novel's chilling undertow beneath all the comedy.
The supporting cast is superb: Dinda, the idealistic campaign intern who slowly realizes the party has no actual principles; Senator Hiram Fry, a straight-talking old warhorse who delivers the novel's most sobering warnings; and Marty, Robbie's long-suffering aide whose deadpan exasperation carries the humor throughout.
Pepper writes with the confidence of someone who has watched Washington up close, and it shows. Run Robbie Run is sharp, fast, and bracingly cynical - a comic novel that lands its punches because the absurdity never strays too far from reality.
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Seller: Grand Eagle Retail, Bensenville, IL, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. RUN ROBBIE RUN is a wickedly funny political satire about what happens when a party's winning formula expires-and the professionals paid to manage reality decide it's easier to fake it.With the convention weeks away, former President Dewey Fenwick should be torching his opponent. Instead, his campaign is working a different kind of miracle: keeping Dewey upright, camera-ready, and just coherent enough for friendly coverage to insist he's "at the top of his game."Behind the scenes, veteran fixer Ned Witherspoon and a desperately overqualified intern scramble to keep the nominee-and the narrative-from collapsing.When Dewey's situation becomes untenable, the party pivots to a new solution: L. Robertson "Robbie" Crowe III, billionaire heir, failed executive, and walking blank screen. To the strategists, Robbie is ideal-famous enough to sell, vague enough to shape, and unburdened by inconvenient convictions.Robbie is handed a running mate who instantly becomes his infatuation: Evita Manolo, the glamorous "Socialist Sensation." Together they are to sell a platform that's equal parts utopian branding and velvet-glove control: a "voluntary" rewards program that scores citizens for good behavior, penalizes them for bad, and quietly determines who gets a job, a mortgage, and friends.Fast, bawdy, and uncomfortably familiar, Run Robbie Run skewers campaign politics, media groupthink, and the fine art of pretending everything's fine-right up until it isn't.For readers of: Veep-style political workplace comedy; sharp, inside-baseball satire; and Orwell-tinged plausibility where the scariest part of a "voluntary" system is what it quietly makes mandatory. A failing presidential campaign replaces its candidate with a clueless billionaire. To his handlers, he's the perfect puppet. To the nation, he's a disaster waiting to happen. A wickedly funny satire of modern politics. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9798991111577
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Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - RUN ROBBIE RUN is a wickedly funny political satire about what happens when a party's winning formula expires-and the professionals paid to manage reality decide it's easier to fake it.With the convention weeks away, former President Dewey Fenwick should be torching his opponent. Instead, his campaign is working a different kind of miracle: keeping Dewey upright, camera-ready, and just coherent enough for friendly coverage to insist he's 'at the top of his game.'Behind the scenes, veteran fixer Ned Witherspoon and a desperately overqualified intern scramble to keep the nominee-and the narrative-from collapsing.When Dewey's situation becomes untenable, the party pivots to a new solution: L. Robertson 'Robbie' Crowe III, billionaire heir, failed executive, and walking blank screen. To the strategists, Robbie is ideal-famous enough to sell, vague enough to shape, and unburdened by inconvenient convictions.Robbie is handed a running mate who instantly becomes his infatuation: Evita Manolo, the glamorous 'Socialist Sensation.' Together they are to sell a platform that's equal parts utopian branding and velvet-glove control: a 'voluntary' rewards program that scores citizens for good behavior, penalizes them for bad, and quietly determines who gets a job, a mortgage, and friends.Fast, bawdy, and uncomfortably familiar, Run Robbie Run skewers campaign politics, media groupthink, and the fine art of pretending everything's fine-right up until it isn't.For readers of: Veep-style political workplace comedy; sharp, inside-baseball satire; and Orwell-tinged plausibility where the scariest part of a 'voluntary' system is what it quietly makes mandatory. Seller Inventory # 9798991111577
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Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. RUN ROBBIE RUN is a wickedly funny political satire about what happens when a party's winning formula expires-and the professionals paid to manage reality decide it's easier to fake it.With the convention weeks away, former President Dewey Fenwick should be torching his opponent. Instead, his campaign is working a different kind of miracle: keeping Dewey upright, camera-ready, and just coherent enough for friendly coverage to insist he's "at the top of his game."Behind the scenes, veteran fixer Ned Witherspoon and a desperately overqualified intern scramble to keep the nominee-and the narrative-from collapsing.When Dewey's situation becomes untenable, the party pivots to a new solution: L. Robertson "Robbie" Crowe III, billionaire heir, failed executive, and walking blank screen. To the strategists, Robbie is ideal-famous enough to sell, vague enough to shape, and unburdened by inconvenient convictions.Robbie is handed a running mate who instantly becomes his infatuation: Evita Manolo, the glamorous "Socialist Sensation." Together they are to sell a platform that's equal parts utopian branding and velvet-glove control: a "voluntary" rewards program that scores citizens for good behavior, penalizes them for bad, and quietly determines who gets a job, a mortgage, and friends.Fast, bawdy, and uncomfortably familiar, Run Robbie Run skewers campaign politics, media groupthink, and the fine art of pretending everything's fine-right up until it isn't.For readers of: Veep-style political workplace comedy; sharp, inside-baseball satire; and Orwell-tinged plausibility where the scariest part of a "voluntary" system is what it quietly makes mandatory. A failing presidential campaign replaces its candidate with a clueless billionaire. To his handlers, he's the perfect puppet. To the nation, he's a disaster waiting to happen. A wickedly funny satire of modern politics. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9798991111577
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Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. RUN ROBBIE RUN is a wickedly funny political satire about what happens when a party's winning formula expires-and the professionals paid to manage reality decide it's easier to fake it.With the convention weeks away, former President Dewey Fenwick should be torching his opponent. Instead, his campaign is working a different kind of miracle: keeping Dewey upright, camera-ready, and just coherent enough for friendly coverage to insist he's "at the top of his game."Behind the scenes, veteran fixer Ned Witherspoon and a desperately overqualified intern scramble to keep the nominee-and the narrative-from collapsing.When Dewey's situation becomes untenable, the party pivots to a new solution: L. Robertson "Robbie" Crowe III, billionaire heir, failed executive, and walking blank screen. To the strategists, Robbie is ideal-famous enough to sell, vague enough to shape, and unburdened by inconvenient convictions.Robbie is handed a running mate who instantly becomes his infatuation: Evita Manolo, the glamorous "Socialist Sensation." Together they are to sell a platform that's equal parts utopian branding and velvet-glove control: a "voluntary" rewards program that scores citizens for good behavior, penalizes them for bad, and quietly determines who gets a job, a mortgage, and friends.Fast, bawdy, and uncomfortably familiar, Run Robbie Run skewers campaign politics, media groupthink, and the fine art of pretending everything's fine-right up until it isn't.For readers of: Veep-style political workplace comedy; sharp, inside-baseball satire; and Orwell-tinged plausibility where the scariest part of a "voluntary" system is what it quietly makes mandatory. A failing presidential campaign replaces its candidate with a clueless billionaire. To his handlers, he's the perfect puppet. To the nation, he's a disaster waiting to happen. A wickedly funny satire of modern politics. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9798991111577
Quantity: 1 available