Thomas Mallon, Watergate
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A refreshing, subversive look at a uniquely American scandal
European politicians have been known to be confused by America’s Watergate scandal: “Why,” they ask, “wouldn’t a major political party use all available means to beat the competition?” The truth is that the revulsion surrounding Watergate is a particularly American phenomenon, one that cuts to the core of Americans’ misgivings about power and distrust of government. These are all things that Thomas Mallon expertly evokes in his novel Watergate. As he has done in past novels, Mallon here skillfully creates believable fictional versions of historical persons. His other key strength is that he reminds us just what a weird and upsetting thing the break-ins were forAmerica. Mallon wisely steers clear of the major pivots of the case, opting for lesser-known dramas that give this story a subversive freshness, like he’s giving us the vaulted B-sides of the Watergate album.
As with his 2004 novel Bandbox, Mallon neatly and succinctly defines and coordinates a dizzying cast of characters (112 by the list of “players” that prefaces the novel), keeping the action mixed enough to evoke the chaos of the moment yet clear enough to give the listener a fighting chance. His satisfyingly complex Nixon makes the man at the center of it all sympathetic enough to anchor the book but also evocative of the many compromises the famously misanthropic politician made in order to obtain the nation’s top political position. Watergate is the impressive product of Mallon’s search though the vast archives surrounding the infamous incident — it’s his own characteristically Mallon-esque, very American story about absolute power and absolute corruption.
