"O" shit!

Looks like the hype machine working the pre-pub buzz on O: A Presidential Novel has run into the buzz saw of critics’ nasty pens. The reviews are in and they are almost uniformly bad.

Did the publisher buy a novel from a big-name political hack only to realize they had a stinker on their hands after said hack turned in a manuscript? Is this why so much work went into manufacturing buzz ahead of time with the “Anonymous” strategy? Who knows. Either way, it’s starting to look like an object lesson in why you shouldn’t rely on crediting “Anonymous” to make a break-out bestseller unless there’s a damn good reason that person’s identity should be kept secret. Witness the results.

From Susan Page‘s review in USA Today:

The mesmerizing power of Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics when it was published in 1996 was its roiling, pitch-perfect, three-dimensional portrait of President Bill Clinton, even if his name in the loosely fictionalized account of his first presidential campaign was Gov. Jack Stanton.

The disappointing thing about O: A Presidential Novel…is the failure of this speculative account…to offer any similar insights into President Barack Obama, known throughout only by his initial….there are few vivid primary colors here.

From Ron Charles‘s review in the Washington Post:

…its anonymity may be the sexiest thing about “O.” The publisher is being coy, claiming it was written by someone who “has been in the room with Barack Obama,” which means we can rule out Kim Jong Il, but just about everybody else is still fair game. In any case, trust me, it’s far too earnest for Christopher Buckley. And “O” has none of the snazzy wit of Joe Klein’s briefly anonymous novel about the Clinton campaign, or the grandeur of Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men,” or the pathos of Ethan Canin’s “America America.” No, in the pages of this new novel, primary colors fade to soft pastels.”

From Tina Jordan‘s review in Entertainment Weekly:

Short on character, short on plot — a hapless, poorly executed attempt at satire that’s missing literally everything that Primary Colors had going for it: the detail, the zing, the insidery knowledge, the humor. Let’s give S&S an A for marketing O so well. But let’s give the book itself a D.

From Michiko Kakutani‘s review in the New York Times:

Well, now we know why the author of this much gossiped about, heavily marketed new book wanted to remain anonymous: “O: A Presidential Novel” is a thoroughly lackadaisical performance — trite, implausible and decidedly unfunny.

From John Dickerson‘s review in Slate:

It is less a book than a marketing exercise. The pitch meeting must have been awful. The Web page will use Obama’s ears! We’ll post video! Twitter! We’ll keep people guessing! Journalists are denying authorship for fear of being tied to the bad writing. Not since Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction has there been such an awkward striptease.

Yikes.