Elvis and Nixon

By Jonathan Lowy

Book Overview

The weekend before Christmas 1970, Elvis Presley stormed out of Graceland in a drug-addled rage, escaping his handlers for two days and flying back and forth across the country. He finally landed in Washington, D.C., where he begged for, and received, an audience with President Nixon. In the Oval Office, with flashbulbs popping, he was awarded -- of all things -- an FBI Special Narcotics Agent badge. It was a surreal moment. But the story doesn't end -- or begin -- there. Against the backdrop of that historical meeting, Jonathan Lowy weaves a vivid web of stories about the eccentric cast of characters whose lives were touched by the encounter. Some of the stories are real, some are fiction, all are unforgettable. We meet Colonel Alex Sitorski, who spends his tormented days at the Pentagon, trying to develop the right PR spin on the My Lai massacre even as his troubled son returns from Vietnam and joins the antiwar movement. There's Max Sharpe, an eager-beaver policy wonk and Ehrlichman protege who cooks up feel-good White House programs to distract the public from the war. And there's Ben Rollins, a disabled black veteran and ex-football player whose spectacular act of protest in a Rose Garden ceremony sets off a chain of events that touches nearly everyone around him. In the middle of the fray stand Richard Nixon, his integrity and presidency becoming more precarious by the day, and Elvis Presley, desperately searching for what he's lost along the way to stardom. It's a sleek, darkly funny, almost hallucinogenic trip through the '70s with Tricky Dick and the King riding shotgun. It's a book you won't be able to put down, with characters who will stay in your mind long after you've turned the last page.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609608185
• ISBN13: 9780609608180
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Pop Culture Schlock as Dark Social Commentary

In this rather creative novel, Lowy has expanded a famous but certainly schlocky pop-culture event, Nixon's meeting with Elvis, into a dark and satirical commentary on the larger issues of the day. The actual meeting doesn't take place until the end of the book, when Elvis volunteers to help Nixon spy on the types of characters inspired by the events covered in the rest of the story. This is essentially a story about the Vietnam War and its destructive effects on the American culture of the period. Lowy's characters run the gamut of all the types of people who were affected - former soldiers scarred by the horrors of the war, hippies in the new counterculture of dissent, reactionary squares who would say anything to disagree with the hippies (no matter how hateful), a military commander who has realized that blood is on his hands, and representatives of the increasingly paranoid clan of Nixon cronies. A social examination of all these troubling trends is really the focus of this novel. Plus we get a wonderfully muddleheaded Elvis, though Lowy seems to be stretching a bit when imaging how a drug-induced mind operates. Meanwhile, Lowy attempts a highly tangled web of conspiracies and political intrigues among the paranoid government spooks who haunt the book, but has bitten off more than he can chew, as the subplots get unnecessarily dense and tangled. Some annoyingly heavy-handed moralizing is lurking around beneath Lowy's writing style. But this book is still a fun read that can be unexpectedly disturbing and thought-provoking. [~doomsdayer520~]

Suprising new look at Nixon era

Although I have grown weary of books about Nixon era and Vietnam, I thought I would give this novel a try because of the recent Bob Kerrey revelations and the points made in "Vietnam 1960-65, A Prelude to Tragedy" about the inaccuracies of McNamera's point of view. This novel succeeds spectacularly on many levels. It pulls the major events of the era into a convincing fable about right and wrong. It is extremely thought provoking on what has happened to the American Dream. Lowy's writing style is engaging and demonstrates sharp wit with a keen sense of the ironic. A great read. Take it to the beach.

Really unexpected and Really Good!

I never would have picked up this novel, but it was given to me as a gift by someone who I trust. Jonathan Lowy writes like he's channeling Elvis and Nixon--their voices are amazingly real and unstereotyped. He also perfectly recreates what Washington DC was like in the Vietnam era when I was a student there. I was moved on one page and laughing out loud on the other. This is a great cultural satire about two famous and infamous men as well as a very genuine novel about America.

Two Kings

Vivid, vibrant, often times hilarious -- other times poignant -- portrayal of the 60s counterculture, the held-over King of Rock and Roll, Tricky Dick, and the Vietnam war era soul-searching of our nation. A dazzling novel with near-mythic overtones and a raucous cast of characters.