num_pages: 324
description: Ben is a speechwriter on a congressman's primary election team, trying to get their man a Senate seat. Disillusionment is setting in, the candidate is grating, and Ben's funky bachelor's existence is unraveling like yesterday's election banner. He's acting out. Using the floor for a closet, old tissues for toilet paper, he's bringing dishevelment to a high art. Ben's an indifferent housekeeper, to say the least, and his professional digs aren't any less unkempt. Their upkeep gets worse as the campaign wears on and his disaffection becomes greater. It's like a barrier he's constructing from flotsam. Along with facing up to his candidate's failings, he's struggling against his growing affection for fellow campaign worker Calliope Berkowitz. The L word and its scary implications invade his life, so the pressure mounts to break out, make a stand, sneak away. She's a large-sized person, sucks the centers from M&amp;Ms and favors formless clothes in which she walks around barefoot. But none of that is nearly enough to offset his utter surrender to her forthright, beguiling nature. The candidate he's working for is less than noble, but Ben has found true love amidst the bunting and his dirty socks, and it's not letting go. David Mizner is an ex-Washington campaign worker and speechwriter turned Maine writer. He lives on Peaks Island, 1,000. This, his first book, is a sweet novel of young love and raunchy youth.
language: English
title: Political Animal: a novel
titlecomplete: Political Animal: a novel
ratings_count: 16
publisher: Soho Press