{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/9a03fe9e-1ff0-4dcc-b3f6-50bd1f016ea4/db02403e-fd50-4219-bf22-aeb53af79986?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Best Political Novels","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6195701f2eacc3a36070252a/619570bccb3c660012e3d26f.jpg?height=200","description":"<p>A break from Brexit this week: we talk to the novelist Richard T.&nbsp;Kelly, author of Crusaders and The Knives, about what makes great&nbsp;political fiction.&nbsp;We discuss the research needed to make a political&nbsp;novel authentic, how to get inside the head of a politician and we ask&nbsp;whether May or Trump would make good fictional heroes.&nbsp;Plus we pick&nbsp;some of our favourite political novels, with literary critic Kasia&nbsp;Boddy.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Don't worry: more Brexit soon!</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Talking Points:</strong></p><p><br></p><p>How does a novelist know what it’s like to be a Conservative Home Secretary?</p><ul><li>It’s about research and empathy.</li><li>Novelists should understand and contain forces of both revolution and counter-revolution within themself.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>The best political novels often extend forward into dystopia but also backward into history to explain how you got to that outcome.</p><ul><li>Writing the present is extremely difficult.</li><li>Political novels need human drama and conflict.</li><li>The human elements allow you to get beyond Washington or Westminster.</li><li>The challenge is to capture both powerful and ordinary people with equal verisimilitude.</li><li>Politics today are increasingly schematic, which presents problems for the novelist.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>At their core, political novels are political because they deal with question of the legitimate and illegitimate use of force.</p><ul><li>Controlling the killing machines is what makes a politician’s job different. What does it mean to live with the consequences of that kind of power?</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Books come and go because of things that happen in the world.</p><ul><li>U.S. publishers are currently reprinting a lot of old dystopias—but not many new novels.</li><li>Fiction sales are down. People are too engrossed in the daily news cycle.</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>The Panel’s Favourite Political Novels:</strong></p><ul><li><a href=\"https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/558/55808/all-the-king-s-men/9780141188614.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>All the King’s Men</em>, Robert Penn Warren</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Daniel-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141188189\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Book of Daniel</em>, E.L. Doctorow</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Wife-Curtis-Sittenfeld/dp/0552775541\" target=\"_blank\"><em>American Wife</em>, Curtis Sittenfeld</a></li><li><a href=\"https://www.amazon.co.uk/Palliser-Novels-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199655685\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Palliser Novels</em>, Anthony Trollope</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Also on the TP Bookshelf:</strong></p><ul><li><a href=\"https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571296668-the-knives.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Knives</em>, Richard T. Kelly</a></li><li><em>Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography</em>, Charles Moore</li><li><em>The Line of Beauty</em>, Alan Hollinghurst</li><li><em>The Information</em>, Martin Amis</li><li><em>La Comédie Humaine</em>, Honoré de Balzac</li><li><em>Harlot’s Ghost</em>, Norman Mailer</li><li><em>The Great Melody</em>, Conor Cruise O’Brien</li><li><em>Crusaders</em>, Richard T. Kelly</li><li><em>The Ghost</em>, Robert Harris</li><li>The<em> U.S.A.</em> Trilogy, John Dos Passos</li><li><em>Middle England</em>, Jonathan Coe</li><li><a href=\"https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56824/tell-all-the-truth-but-tell-it-slant-1263\" target=\"_blank\">“Tell the truth but tell it slant—,” Emily Dickinson</a></li><li><em>The Secret Agent</em>, Joseph Conrad</li><li><em>Demons</em> (or <em>The Devils</em>), Fyodor Dostoevsky</li><li><em>The Plot Against America</em>, Philip Roth</li><li><em>Gilead</em>, Marilynne Robinson</li><li><em>Corridors of Power</em>, C.P. Snow</li><li><em>It Can’t Happen Here</em>, Sinclair Lewis</li><li><em>The Man in the High Castle</em>, Philip K. Dick</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: </strong><a href=\"http://lrb.co.uk/talking\"...","author_name":"David Runciman and Catherine Carr"}