What Makes It Worthy: A Novel - Softcover

What Makes It Worthy is a brilliant tell-all about the tabloidization of American politics that takes readers inside the corruptive interplay between powerbrokers and press at the highest levels. This “absorbing novel ... does what nonfiction cannot: it allows readers to know what it’s like to live Washington politics ... with fictional characters who seem all too real,” says political strategist James Carville.

“Captivating,” writes novelist Matthew Thomas, “part case study, part postmortem, and part love letter to political intrigue.” And novelist Lynn Lauber calls it “a Primary Colors for this generation.”

Kirkus Reviews writes that the novel is “a genuinely tender love story” and “insightful.” “Both a love story and an exposé on modern American campaigns,” says former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman.

What Makes It Worthy is also the personal story of Taylor Solomon and Cait Ellis. Taylor is a rising star at America’s fastest-growing political media machine. Cait is a young New York Times reporter who wrestles with the shadow of her legendary mother.

And it is an historic—yet familiar—campaign. The Republican, who hails from one of America’s power clans and has long been in the national spotlight, seeks to become the first female president. Her Democratic opponent, a State Department veteran setting the election afire with populism, hopes to make his own history as the first Hispanic president. On the campaign trail, as ethics gray and events envelop politicians, operatives, and reporters—as Cait and Taylor struggle with how much distance must be accepted between their ideals and their choices—the political not only becomes personal, but also threatens to upend their lives, as well as the presidential campaign itself.

Written by well-known political journalist David Paul Kuhn, What Makes It Worthy is “a heartfelt page-turner that proves a good novel can both entertain you and inform you,” in the words of former Michigan Governor

Kuhn has held senior writing positions across the political-media landscape, from Politico to RealClearPolitics to CBSnews.com. He has also written for The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, among other publications, and regularly appeared on networks ranging from BBC to Fox News. As the Macmillan Speakers Bureau described him, “David Paul Kuhn is an expert analyst of presidential and gender politics.” He is also the author of The Neglected Voter, which General Wes Clark called “a brilliantly insightful analysis of American politics.”

Kuhn has covered four presidential campaigns and politics from Washington to the United Nations, and has driven the width of the United States for CBS News documenting Americans’ lives and outlooks. He has reported on events from the epicenter of the collapse of the World Trade Center to North Korean backroom nuclear negotiations. Early in his career, he reported on the United States for the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s most widely circulated newspaper.