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The Race

Grace under pressure

Richard North Patterson
Macmillan, 339pp, £26,

Richard Briand

Wednesday, 13th February 2008

Richard Briand on Richard North's Patternson's new book

Can a straight-talking Republican Senator, a decorated war hero at odds with the GOP establishment, win his party’s nomination for president? Richard North Patterson insists that the similarities between the hero of his latest novel and John McCain ‘end with his military career and penchant for candor’. There are, nevertheless, numerous other parallels between McCain and Senator Corey Grace. Grace is, after all, a fiscal conservative who opposes abortion but favours stem-cell research, supports campaign finance reform, and favours an amnesty for illegal immigrants. Like McCain, he is also prone to impetuous behaviour, which his enemies exploit to spread rumours that his period in enemy captivity made him unstable. Grace also has to withstand dirty tricks in a South Carolina primary.

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