State of the Union

by Douglas Kennedy

Book Overview

#1 International Bestseller "Kennedy is such a nimble storyteller... the pages fly."-- Entertainment Weekly From the New York Times bestselling author of Leaving the World comes the compelling story... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 145160209X
• Release Date: March 2011
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 492 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.4" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

You can't stop reading it!

I loved this book, I recommended it to many people. It's well written and you can't stop reading it because you want to know what's going to happen next. It teaches you a lot about relationships (couple, parent-children, friends), and a little bit of real history in the 60s.

How something can backfire on you 30 years on

What happens when a two-day, spur-of-the-moment sexual affair that a young married woman has with a student radical thirty years previously comes back to haunt her in the most public and devastating of ways? This is the premise of "State of the Union", a very fine novel by Douglas Kennedy. It is the late '60's and Hannah Latham, daughter of a famous radical history professor and an avant-garde artist defies her parents expectations and marries her quiet, button-down medical student boyfriend. By the time her husband, Ben, gets offered an internship in the one-horse town of Pelham, Maine, Hannah has given birth to a son and is feeling the stultifying boredom of being stuck in a small, insular town. Enter Tobias Judson, a student radical acquaintance of her father, who turns up on Hannah's doorstep whilst her husband is away, needing a place to crash for a few days. Hannah consents and embarks on a wild, two day sexual affair with him. However, Tobias is on the run from the FBI and blackmails Hannah into driving him across the border into Canada, thereby forcing her to commit a federal offence. Fast forward thirty years, and Hannah is still married to Dr Dan and her two children have grown up. Life is rolling along nicely now that Dan is a successful orthopedic surgeon. That all comes crashing down when Hannah's delusional daughter goes missing and Tobias Judson, now a right-wing talkshow host, publishes his biography which details his affair with Hannah, with vastly embellished details. The press jumps on both her daughter's disappearance and Judson's biography and Hannah's life swiftly turns upside down in the worst possible way. Kennedy does a marvellous job writing this novel as Hannah in first person narration. In my opinion, he pulls it off brilliantly. The plot is absolutely terrific, rivetting to the last. Kennedy poses a lot of questions about post 9/11 America. What constitutes a traitorous act? How should such a traitor be vilified? How can a traitor redeem themselves? What sort of accountability should a person have for an illegal act they were forced to do? My only quibble is that the ending resolves itself a little too neatly, but that is only a very minor concern. The book is tremendous and I have given it a 5-star rating.

LOVED!

I loved this book so much that I orginally thought about giving it to someone else to read as I do most books because I never consider reading paperback fiction novels twice - this is an exception! I am actually considering re-reading it. It touched me in so many ways. It is a reminder of the importance of living in the moment

fantastic author, fantastic book

It was an incredible read that made me think about the characters and their actions long after I finished reading the book. This is one of those books that will engage you from beginning to end by it's persuasive detail about one woman's emotional life. The author has an incredible ability to understand the minds of women. I discovered another author to add to my list of favorites authors.

A great read!

I just finished reading the French version and ordered the English version for Father's Day for my dad. I loved this book and wish it was not finished! I highly recommend it. Interestingly the translation of the title into French is : The Secret Charms of Married Life....having nothing to do with the English title.