I started listening to Michael Smerconish in the summer of 2000 trying to get my brain wrapped around the upcoming election. He's a super entertaining talk show host who could address serious political issues just as well as he could discuss lifestyle points like if Christmas lights should be white or multicolored. As his career progressed his time slot changed and my listening interests shifted more to podcasts than political radio but I was always glad when he succeed and got a more national recognition and a spot on CNN. Anyway, this is all to explain why I bought his novel when it came out (to support a person I felt like I "knew") but never actually read it.

This week I stumbled upon his novel in my kindle and it felt like the time to read it. OMG. It's a scathing expose of the media/talk radio/cable TV. It's not the most well written thing (there's a lot of redundancy) but he creates a great (if overly crude) character in Stan Powers, talk show host on the rise, and a plot that seems shockingly plausible. Because I have followed so much of his career I recognize a lot of Michael in his character and I wonder how much truth hides in the rest of this story.

Besides the plot, there are several passages describing the state of American politics and the role of media in it and for that alone I think this is a good read for this period leading up to the fall election.

I'd categorize this as a quick beach read with some hidden serious and thought provoking undertones. ( )