The Last Hurrah

Edwin O'Connor's masterpiece on the demise of the complex and facinating world of old-school Boston politics is simply my favorite book. O'Connor painted a more vivid, compelling picture of this peculiar phenomenon through fiction than any political biography or history could ever hope to. Skeffington is one of the most interesting, amicable characters I have ever encountered in any book of any genre. Quick-witted, funny, and heroic, he is the epitome of the old-fashioned politician. O'Connor's work truly makes me yearn for the past - when, although far from perfect, politicians had something they will NEVER have again: charisma. O'Connor's foreshadowing of what local (as well as state and national) politics would become has proven amazingly correct - know-it-all, made-for-TV blank slates that are as charismatic as the processed, artificial backgrounds they are manufactured from. A great work of fiction, biography, history, and the American experience. A masterpiece.

I find it hard to be impartial about this book, which is one of my favorites, and is the basis for the great John Ford/Spencer Tracy film of the same name. The main criticism of the novel appears to be that O'Connor was too benevolent in his portrayal of a big city political boss and of machine politics generally. But I think that this complaint really misses the central insight of the story. Whatever Frank Skeffington's faults may be--and it is at least implied that he is financially corrupt and is readily apparent that he has become morally corrupt in the pursuit of power--he is also undeniably an interesting and compelling personality. As the Monsignor says at his funeral : The bigger the man is in public life, the bigger the praise or the blame--and we have to remember that Frank Skeffington was quite a big man.What Edwin O'Connor discerned was that the modern, clean-cut, college-educated, television-age, politicians would be equally corrupt, but would be little men. Like news anchormen, they would look well-polished and nicely groomed, but they would be empty suits. Marketed like household products, they would be chosen specifically because they were so colorless, so unlikely to put off the voter/consumer. And so we are left with the worst of both worlds : the politicians are still power hungry crooks, but now they have no entertainment value to redeem them.Skeffington's ultimate legacy is bookended between two other sentiments expressed after his death. Nathaniel Gardiner, the old line WASP who sparred with but respected the Mayor, thinks to himself : "If only he had not been such a rogue..." but then realizes that had he been less a rogue, he would have been less of a figure. But perhaps the final assessment belongs to the Cardinal who had battled him for so long : Whether you realize it or not now, you will later on. This man cheapened us forever at a time when we could have gained stature. I can never forgive him for that.O'Connor, though he makes Skeffington an immensely entertaining and likable character, can hardly be accused of whitewashing the true nature of such men. To say that someone "cheapened us" is, or used to be, a pretty serious indictment.GRADE : A

There was a day when politics was about quick witted men speaking directly to the constituency. This is a book about the end of those days in Boston. Skeffington, the mayor of Boston (a thinly veiled James Michael Curley) is running for one last term as mayor. This is the tale of that race and of Skeffington's life in politics. What makes this book particularly precious is the, still accurate, portrayal of the hatred between the Irish and the Old Yankees in Boston. Skeffington, an Irishman, has adroitly played the political game for years. This book tells of how the Irish came to power in Boston. More important it tells how at the end, politics became less about speaking clearly and shaking hands firmly and more about money and television. To me, Skeffington is the king of the political characters. He has humor and sensitivity. Would that there were anyone left with the entertaining humor he brought to the world of politics.A most entertaining read.

The summary expalins the basics: a main character in the truest sense of the word character, a great story of the ending of an era, etc. The biggest endorsement, and the most telling thing I can say is to explain how my brother and I aquired the book. My father, who was known to his college buddies as a samrt guy, but certainly not an intellectual, gave the book to one of his friends to read in 1961. The guy not only read it and loved it, but he saved it--for over thirty years. Then one Christmas he was joining our family for dinner and he gave it to my brother and told us the story of the first assigned book he ever knew my father to read cover to cover. We fought over who got to take it back to college first, and now we continue to pass it back and forth to re-read.

I cannot believe that more people have not read this book. I studied Edwin O'Connor as the subject of my Master's Thesis and his amazingly witty and humourous books made the task so easy. I think Edwin O'Connor has been unduly forgotten, and that students of Irish or Irish-American literature and history should take a closer look at his commenatary on the assimiliation of the Irish into America. However, don't get me wrong: this is not an academic book, it is a really fun read.