NFN: Book Pairing

Week 2: Book Pairing: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title (or another nonfiction!). It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story. Or pair a book with a podcast, film or documentary, TV show, etc. on the same topic or stories that pair together. Our Nonficton November host this week is What's Nonfiction? 

In If Then Jill Lepore takes us through the history of the Simulmatics Corporation which was a social science technology firm active in politics (and other things) in the 1960s. She pulls in all kinds of interesting history about presidential election campaigns, Vietnam, and the culture of the period.

Gate City by Michael Davidow is a work of historical fiction centering on the victory of John F. Kennedy over Richard Nixon in 1960. This novel is the first volume of the Henry Bell trilogy (Split Thirty and The Rocketdyne Commission are the other titles). All 3 novels would make a wonderful companion read to Lepore's history book as they are set in the same social milieu and considering very similar issues. 

Review: Gate City

Gate City by Michael Davidow

This was an excellent novel. It tells the story of several men, primarily Henry Bell and Jack Mercer, and their involvement with the conventions leading up to the 1960 U.S. Presidential election. There are a lot of interesting ideas and philosophical questions in the novel and they are discussed by various characters so you see multiple sides. The style of the writing reminded me of classic Los Angeles noir (think Raymond Chandler) which kept the story from getting bogged down in the philosophy. Early in the novel a man (in a suit and tie) walks across a beach carrying a surfboard which is a fabulous image and set a tone for this character that held for me through the book. The next volume in the story of Henry Bell is Split Thirty which I look forward to reading.

Reading this novel was an interesting experience. The author is someone I know and when I started reading I couldn't help picturing him as the person telling the story. As I got further into the novel though the characters he created took over and I was thoroughly pulled into the place and time he created.

I am counting this book toward the What's in a Name challenge as it includes a city (by nickname) in the title.