NIOBRARA COUNTY LIBRARY ANNOUNCES A READING AND DISCUSSION PROGRAM
OF NOVELS ABOUT POLITICS
Starting in September, the Niobrara County Library will host “Figureheads,” a reading and discussion series featuring novels about politics. The discussion group meets September 1, October 6, November 3 and December 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the library and is free and open to the public. Wayne Deahl returns to lead the discussions.
Participants in “Figureheads” will read and discuss Roscoe by William Kennedy. Roscoe Conway, after running Albany’s notorious political machine in his brilliant and unscrupulous way for twenty-six years, decides to quit politics. But the governor moves to destroy the machine and only Roscoe’s Machiavellian imagination can cope with the erupting disasters. All the Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren was pronounced massive, impressive… one of our true national galleries of character by Sinclair Lewis in 1946. This novel is generally considered the finest novel ever written on American politics and is indeed a literary classic. Billy Lee Brammer’s The Gay Place is also considered one of the finest novels about American politics; The Gay Place consists of three interlocking novels, each with a different protagonist–a member of the state legislature, the state’s junior senator, and the governor’s press secretary. The governor himself, Arthur Fenstemaker, a master politician, infinitely canny and seductive, remains the dominant figure throughout. Completing the series is Primary Colors written anonymously. Henry Burton, a former congressional aide, is tired of the back-scratching, back-stabbing, and back-watching of legislative politics. Then he’s convinced to join Jack Stanton’s presidential campaign, has Henry finally found a leader he can believe in?
These novels are deeply researched historical novels, with main characters based on the lives of famous politicians Huey P. Long, Lyndon Johnson, and Bill Clinton.
To register and borrow books stop by the library or call, 334-3490 or email dsturman@niobraracountylibrary.org. The program is offered by the Wyoming Humanities Council and is sponsored by the We the People initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information on the council’s programs, call 307-721-9243 or visit the council’s website at www.uwyo.edu/humanities.