At the very moment when they should have been securing success, though, Kramer’s White House implodes under rumors of her husband’s infidelity and grave errors of judgment on the part of her closest national security advisor.

Had the plot not bogged down the characters, Wallace might have had herself a literary landslide.From the former Communications Director for the White House and current political media strategist comes a suspenseful and smart commercial novel about the first female president and all dramas and deceptions she faces both in politics and in love.Įighteen Acres, a description used by political insiders when referring to the White House complex, follows the first female President of the United States, Charlotte Kramer, and her staff as they take on dangerous threats from abroad and within her very own cabinet.Ĭharlotte Kramer, the 45th US President, Melanie Kingston, the White House chief of staff, and Dale Smith, a White House correspondent for one of the networks are all working tirelessly on Charlotte’s campaign for re-election. Sarah Palin, famously feuded with Palin.)Ĭharlotte and Dale, though they are less well-rendered, are equally entertaining.īetween the three of them, the ladies carry “Eighteen Acres” to a muddled success. (Wallace, who also served as a senior aide to the campaign of Sen. Particularly amusing are Melanie’s dealings with her staff nemesis, Ralph - a roly-poly aide who sounds an awful lot like Karl Rove - and her battles with Tara Meyers, Charlotte’s superfolksy running mate. There are entertaining nuggets about jockeying for the president’s time who really knows the gossip in the White House how reporters are spun and so on. Her observations allow Wallace to share what she knows after a lifetime in politics. She also sounds the most like Wallace.īoth vulnerable and wry, she is a window into the life of an uber-career woman. Yet, even though it’s camp, there’s a certain irresistible quality to “Eighteen Acres.” The book is genuinely hard to put down, a testament to its well-drawn characters. Soon things will get even more dubious and flimsy, particularly with the rather abrupt introduction of a Sarah Palin-esque character whom Kramer takes on as her running mate. Like a presidency, which lacks any ability to pause, “Eighteen Acres” will keep churning along. As will the reader - this is the part that will require you to willfully suspend your disbelief. Each of the three protagonists will be deeply affected by what’s happened. The novel’s plot twists, painfully, on a presidential trip to Afghanistan and its aftermath.

Eighteen acres a novel