Favorite Sons

by John Russell

Overview

A political saga spans two generations as it traces the lives of two hopeful U.S. senators and their battles against a New Right media genius who is determined to maintain the status quo.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644280836
Publisher:	Rare Bird Books
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

John Russell is the author of the prize-winning novel Favorite Sons, which the New York Times heralded as “… a novel of ideas sweeping grandly through more than forty years of Southern history.” Russell worked in the publishing industry, and has served in law firms, private industry, and government. He holds degrees from the Universityof North Carolina, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School. He and his wife divide time between North Carolina and Mexico.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Favorite Sons
"... a novel of ideas sweeping grandly through more than forty years of Southern history."
—The New York Times Book Review

"This novel's finest accomplishment...appears in the stranglehold that the past exerts upon the present."
—Los Angeles Times

"Favorite Sons...is that rare breed—political novel, family saga and first-rate literary fiction."
—Newsday

"Like all good fiction, Favorite Sons illuminates the human condition...it also illuminates our time and place, and tells us something about who we are, and why."
—Charlotte Observer

From the Publisher

Against the backdrop of a changing South, two ambitious men share an intense, troubled friendship over four decades in this interesting, though flawed, first novel of fatherhood, rivalry, family secrets and electoral politics. Worth Patterson, whose grandfather built the city of Fairington, N.C., is an instinctively shrewd leader and politician. Roger Albright, scion of an aristocratic but impoverished Fairington clan, is a driven intellectual with dreams of wealth. Fraternity brothers and best friends in the late 1930s, the young men also have a close relationship with eccentric, brilliant sociology professor Taliaferro Ogden, who presides over a powerful political organization. Through war, rivalry in love, financial hardship and family scandal, the two remain close as they ascend to positions of power--Roger as a multi-millionaire industrialist, Worth as a U.S. senator. Russell writes knowingly of the dynamics of southern politics and the rise of the New Right. But his narrative becomes clumsy when he shifts points of view or incorporates historical documents, and his underdeveloped characters at times seem mere agents of the plot. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Russell's first novel is an earnest work about family and politics in North Carolina. Roger Albright's family has lost their 19th-century money and prestige. Worth Patterson's family has retained theirs, but several unsavory skeletons remain in the closet. When Roger and Worth fall in love with the same girl, Lulu, their friendship begins a test that continues throughout their lives. Although a brilliant researcher for the Institute for Progressive Studies and lover of a New York Jewish radical, Roger chooses a life of entrepreneurship and becomes one of the richest men in America. Worth enters politics, ending up as a U.S. senator. Roger's son Brent may be Lulu and Worth's son, which prevents him from winning his own love, Worth's daughter Pammie. In the book's culminating moment, Worth loses his reelection bid to a right-wing zealot who uses underhanded campaign tactics. Pleasant reading, but with a strong regional flavor; one wonders if this book will appeal to readers outside North Carolina.-- Harold Augenbraum, Mercantile Lib., New York

Library Journal