"[A] darkly funny fictional 'memoir'... The Columnist's greatest triumph is its narrator's voice: a brilliantly odious blend of clich6, double-talk and name-dropping An irony so wounding that the novel feels more like an 18th century satire than the work of recent comic writers like Tom Wolfe. Even the names carry a Swiftian spank."---THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"A lusty, witty novel of Washington... told through the 'memoir' of a social climbing columnist."---NEWS WEEK

"One of the sharpest skewerings of a journalist since Evelyn Waugh's Scoop A scathing satire of a Washington pundit who is all opinion and no insight, all contention and no contenti"---SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Sharp elbows, professional mischief,and ribald double-talk abound in this novel about the mad scrambles and the inglorious ends that enthrall our nation's capital.

  It is Washington in the autumn of 1987, a tranquil time in America. As the Reagan era ends--and prospects appear bright for aDukakis administration--the lawyers, publicists,strategists, and lobbyists of the city are making plans for the year ahead. Among them is a cast of players whose fortunes prove to be intertwined in unexpected and not always pleasant ways.

  Charlie Dingleman, a former congressman,finds himself pursued by an increasingly unsa-vory rumor, while Judith Grust, an associate at Charlie's law firm and the source of this rumor,has a few dark secrets of her own. Hank Morri-day, who feels trapped inside a think tank,keeps trying to finish a book on social policy in which he's lost interest, and Candy Romulade,a public relations executive paralyzed by her meager client list, is losing heart. Then there is Reynolds Mund, a veteran local anchorman,who has formed some very peculiar theories about the news business.

  On the eve of a new administration, their hilariously savage ambitions and reversals of for-tune test the idea that there's no such thing as bad publicity. The result is a pitch-perfect, often poignant, novel in the classic Swiftian mold.