Description
The narrator introduces Elena McMahon, who is estranged from a life of celebrity fundraisers and from her powerful West Coast husband, Wynn Janklow. She leaves him, takes her daughter Catherine, and becomes a reporter for The Washington Post. She travels to Florida to see her father and becomes embroiled in his business even though "she had trained herself since childhood not to have any interest in what he was doing." From this moment she is caught up in something much larger than she could have imagined.
Didion makes connections among Dallas, Iran-Contra, and Castro, and points out how "spectral companies with high-concept names tended to interlock." As the book builds to its terrifying finish, we see the underpinnings of a dark historical underbelly.
An intricate, fast-paced novel about trying to create a context for democracy and getting hands a little dirty in the process, complete with conspiracies, arms dealing, and assassinations.
Endorsements
"Didion at her finest" — USA Today