From the Campaign Trail or Thereabouts
When inept journalist Harold Carlyle is assigned to report on the 2016 Presidential Election, he hatches a scheme to save his marriage by taking his wife Pattie with him across the country, pledging that they’ll be able to reach San Diego’s idyllic shores on his publication’s dime. As Harold lackadaisically covers the Republican campaign, the couple encounters America’s absurdities and dark contradictions, from a Neo-Nazi group preoccupied with following parliamentary procedure, to Iowa state fairs, a pair of 9/11 Truthers celebrating their golden anniversary on a cross-country train trip, a Russian food cart vendor who seems to pop up at campaign events around the country, pay-by-the hour motels, online trolls, combination truck stops and adult emporiums, I Love Lucy, and the dubious efficacy of their marriage counselor’s communication exercises. Despite his elaborate schemes and quick-witted excuses, Harold’s career and marriage continue to unravel, until he stumbles upon a flash drive with transcripts of off-color conversations revealing collusion between Donald Trump and a Kremlin emissary.
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Book Club Packet
Want to read From the Campaign Trail or Thereabouts in your book club? Michael and Andy have prepared a number of discussion questions and wacky games that are sure to foster fun and compelling conversation.
Humorist Books
an imprint of the Weekly Humorist
ISBN-13: 9780359807260
Paperback | 320 pages | 6 x 9 in
Release date: September 12, 2019
praise for From the Campaign Trail or Thereabouts.
““I almost died laughing. In fact, I probably should be dead.””
““Since real-life politics caught up to fictional politics in terms of absurdity and ridiculousness, it takes a talented comic mind to push satire to the next level. Or as is the case with Bleicher and Newton, two of them. From the Campaign Trail or Thereabouts is equal parts insightful, frightening, and totally hilarious.””
““Part satire, part romp, and wholly enjoyable. From the Campaign Trail or Thereabouts will take you into the most absurd, darkest corners of our American psyche. Bleicher and Newton are talents to watch.””
““In their debut novel, Bleicher & Newton make it clear they are in the forefront of a new generation of political satirists. They are funny and they are smart. I recommend that you read their new book as soon as possible.””
““Reading this book made me feel exactly how Sir Alexander Fleming must’ve felt when he discovered penicillin: ‘OMG, I’ve accidentally found the cure to every ailment I have. My marriage, my desire to drive across country, the lack of laughter in this library, Republicans, Russians, this gross staph infection. I think it’s a staph infection. Is it? Is it cancer? Hi-larious!’ Read it now, and you can feel all that, too.””
““This is political satire in 3-D. So much of our liberal angst in this Age of Trump targets the bombast and vulgarity of political discourse. But this novel, painfully funny, deadpan in delivery, gets at greater depths. It shows the absurdities inflecting all ranks and factions of American politi-cal life—and it puts a mirror to the reader, as well.””
book launch
Downtown Manhattan, September 21, 2019
