The premise of Elizabeth Harris’s How to Sleep at Night was catnip for me. Happily married and bringing up their daughter, Ethan and Gabe find themselves at opposite ends of the political spectrum. When Ethan announces he wants to run for Congress on a Republican ticket, he tells Gabe that he will only do it with Gabe’s blessing
Ethan had always been to Gabe’s right politically, and twenty years ago, when they started dating, that was fine. Gabe was so liberal that there wasn’t much room on his left anyway.
After college, Ethan had worked for a Democrat who was later exposed as corrupt setting off a drift to the right which culminates in the bombshell he drops on Gabe. Their marriage has already been strained by Ethan’s substance abuse but he’s been clean for years, well before they had their daughter. Now an acclaimed political columnist if a little jaded, it was Ethan’s sister Kate who introduced Gabe to him. Torn between his dearest beliefs and his love for Ethan, Gabe lends his support to his husband, gritting his teeth at photo shoots designed to show how Republicans can be gay too. Kate’s boss warns her off covering her brother’s campaign, leaving her with time on her hands to respond to the advances of her ex, Nicole, fourteen years into a marriage to Austin with two children and no career to show for her art history degree. Over a campaign which sees Ethan publicly espousing beliefs Gabe finds abhorrent, their private life is picked over in public, Kate finds herself compromised and Gabe loses the trust of his students and colleagues. Crunch time comes with the Primary.
Gabe felt like his skin was peeling away, exposing parts of him that were pink and raw underneath. He was a progressive. He was a proud gay man. He was a public-school teacher. Who would he be now? Â
Harris flits back and forth between Gabe, Kate and Nicole as she unfolds her story. As someone who knew that if her partner voted for Brexit (never any danger of that) she’d have to up sticks and leave, I had to suspend some disbelief but presumably some couples manage to navigate widely diverging beliefs, political and otherwise. Harris writes wittily, occasionally comically, peopling her novel with engaging characters, but her exploration of the political campaign machinery, the many compromises made and the effects on family and friends makes serious points. Given my interest in politics, this one had instant appeal for me but even if you find the prospect of a political novel dull, I’d still recommend it as an entertaining piece of storytelling.
Laura had a very different take on this one. You can read her review here.
The Borough Press London 9780008726843 368 pages Hardback (Read via NetGalley)
We have a couple of friends whos politics are very different, and indeed we wonder how it is they sleep together at night. So I’d be interested in this one, I’m sure.
Presumably it depends on how political your household is. We’re avoiding talk of American politics at the moment!
Ah, I see …..
Not that we disagree but I just can’t bear it.
Quite. We’re both doing Extreme Gloom together.
I can’t decide if this is for me. Although I can’t imagine living with someone whose politics were such polar opposite to my own, so it would be interesting to read an exploration of this.
It’s quite well done but you do have to suspend your disbelief. Bit of a distraction from the real thing which I can’t bear to think about at the moment.
I think I’d struggle with this one, partly because the American right at the moment doesn’t just hold beliefs that are polar opposite to the American left; rightwing American political culture now involves actively calling for the extermination of various and sundry demographics. It’s dizzying, and a bit of a disservice, for an author to write a novel that presents the situation as more reasonable than that—it really isn’t.
I can understand that, and I suspect this may not do so well in the States as might have been expected before Trump’s re-election. The current situation is deeply troubling.
Interesting to wonder about the publishing schedule for this! Sometimes things do come out at very inopportune moments…
Odd, isn’t it. I thought the US date might have been last year but it seems not.
This is basically where I was at with it. I thought she’d create more of a fantasy alternate-world of politics, but nope, it’s business as usual, and so I couldn’t suspend disbelief. Thanks for linking to my review, Susan!
You’re welcome, Laura. I read it pre-election and might think differently now.
Yes, absolutely! (Have you read Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony? I think that succeeds more in being a surreal alt-political world, and it was published in 2020, when the situation was still bad but we all needed the distraction of goofiness. Actually, the fact that it’s an obviously goofy comic novel probably works in its favour too.)
I’d forgotten all about that! Thanks for reminding me. Bonkers but it did have some serious points to make.
No, I haven’t! I was thinking of the wish fulfillment fantasy politics in Red White and Royal Blue hahaha which I adored
Ahahaha yes of course! Same basic idea 😀
I might take a gander on this if my library buys a copy, but I don’t naturally gravitate towards political fiction. My mother and stepfather were on opposite sides of the U.S. spectrum and had a short but happy marriage because they didn’t talk politics!
What a wise couple! H and I are pretty much in agreement politically but spend too much time talking about it although we’re getting better at calling a halt.
I think we have yet to see the best fiction of our politically polarised times. It’s going to be a rich vein as people who once considered themselves left, find themselves called far-right Nazi bigots, shunned, and canceled.
“photo shoots designed to show how Republicans can be gay too” LOL!!! I have a lot of friends (not “lovers”) who are Trumpers–it takes real patience [for both sides] but we focus on what we have in common. I do know some “One Trumper” couples–no surprise it’s the men who wear the red hats.
I do know people who were dreading family Christmas gatherings after the EU referendum here but no couples although perhaps they’d decided to keep quiet about it!
Horrifying that Trump Inauguaration II is on Dr. Martin Luther King Day. Talk about cognative disonance!
Ugh… I hadn’t realised that.
I once had two friends whose marriages seemed like this one and I mostly just sat quietly in complete wonderment. But neither lasted. Not to say that I think this is always the case but, at the time divorce was never even lightly alluded to, and then it happened.
Hard to imagine for me although we’re talking less about politics than we were in this house and all the happier for it.