The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor #1956Club

The 1956 Club is a meme created by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings to showcase books published in a specific year.  

Title: The Last Hurrah
Author: Edwin O’Connor
Publication: Little, Brown, hardcover, 1956
Genre: Fiction

Description: The Last Hurrah depicts the final campaign of an old-time mayor, Frank Skeffington, an Irish politician who has managed big city politics with equal measures of charm and graft, annoying the Protestants who manage the banks and law firms so much they are supporting his opponent, any opponent.  Disappointed in his own son, Skeffington invites Adam, the nephew he barely knows, to join him on the campaign trail.  Adam, a cartoonist unfamiliar with politics, is wary of being drawn into Skeffington’s corrupt world but curious enough to follow the old charmer to wakes and rallies and sessions with hangers-on, and surprises himself by coming to admire and care for his uncle.

The Candidate (Review)

Title: The Candidate
Author: Paul Harris
Publication Information: Vantage Press, trade paperback, July 2012, isbn 978-1936467389
Genre: Suspense

Plot: Trailing in the polls, slightly before the Iowa Caucuses, Jack Hodges is a virtually unknown presidential candidate. Then, on one cold night, there is an assassination attempt – Hodges instinctively shields his wife and they survive the attack. Overnight, he is proclaimed a hero and his candidacy picks up steam and overtakes the female frontrunner. But his campaign manager, a crude but canny Louisiana native named Dee Babineaux, sends Mike Sweeney, an idealistic campaign worker, to figure out who the would-be assassin is and what she may be hiding that could damage Hodge’s ascent. Mike is the book’s most interesting character as he longs for a candidate he can support wholeheartedly. He believes Senator Hodges can deliver meaningful change, but as he investigates the mysterious assassin (languishing in jail in Iowa after the campaign has moved on to primaries NH and SC) he becomes more and more fearful of the truth. The investigation eventually takes him to Guatemala in pursuit of a dangerous secret that threatens to destroy more than Mike’s idealism.