During the hard-fought election which unseated incumbent President George Bush and managed to install Bill Clinton (America's first working-class President in young peoples' lifetimes), voters were highly aware of Clinton's flashy strategist: James Carville...the "Ragin' Cajun".
What some didn't know was that Carville had, since before the campaigns began, been courting Mary Matalin: who became Political Director for the Bush campaign. During the bitchy, down-and-dirty all-out war for the soul of America, Carville and Matalin continued communicating -- a hilarious story of how sexual politics GETS, and just how genuinely competitive sexes are. Having married a decent interval after the election, they have now told their story in a book called "All's Fair".
"All's Fair", which came out around the world in late autumn, is now being followed by a film of the romance ("Speechless"). But nothing can beat the laughs, weird weird WEIRD behaviour and EVEN weirder anecdotes of this offbeat situation offered in the own words -- almost -- of this book's two authos. Most left-leaners wondered what Carville saw in Matalin...here there are some clues, and she at least emerges as funny.
Mainly, however, this is a really cracking story. How did a late-life bloomer who frittered away his education on "wine, women and song" have the smarts and passion to make an unlikely candidate into a President. (One of the most revealing bits of the ongoing story is how much Carville comes to respect Clinton).
After the broadcast of DA Pennebaker's documentary film "The War Room" (which covers the strategy center Carville named and manned during the duration of the '92 campaign), the Ragin' Cajun was transformed into a legend. This book demonstrates why he deserves that status. It also reveals how pragmatic a real idealist can be.
"All's Fair" is published by Random House in the USA and by Hutchinson throughout Europe.
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