House of Cards

Michael Dobbs’ House of Cards was a daily deal not too long ago so I figured I’d see how it compared to the Netflix series through which I am slowly making my way. If you aren’t familiar with Netflix, then you probably live under a rock and have no idea what the show is about. In any case, the novel (apparently the first in a trilogy) from which the show took its ideas, takes place in London, and more specifically in the back rooms and back offices of British Parliament. The main character, Francis Urquhart (spelling is probably going to be incorrect from here on out – thankfully Netflix dumbed it down for us Americans to just Underwood), is the Chief Whip. Having ZERO familiarity with British politics this wasn’t really meaningful to me. But if you just understand that this role is powerful enough to meet privately with the Prime Minister easily, but not powerful enough to actually BE the Prime Minister, then that’s really all you need to know.

Francis is passed over for some position within the party and to seek revenge for this betrayal, he pulls out all the stops to take down the existing leadership and come out on top. Helping him along the way are his wife Mortima and young go-getter reporter Mattie Storin. Francis uses anything and everything at his disposal to pull just the right people under his thumb and get what he wants. He’s a viscious, self-centered wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I enjoyed this book well enough but I can’t really think of much to say about it. Some of this is because I finished it ages ago and some of it really is down to how uninterested I am in knowing how horrible politicians are. Yes, this is fiction, but if someone doesn’t believe that this kind of underhanded scheming and self-promoting bullshit doesn’t go on in every government, then they’re naïve. Can you tell I’m really not looking forward to 2016???

If I remember, my biggest stumbling block here was my lack of familiarity with British politics. However, Dobbs writes well enough that you can get the gist of what’s happening. Having seen some of the Netflix show I was incapable of removing Kevin Spacey’s overdone southern drawl from any of Francis’ dialogue. (Aside: I’m from North Carolina. I’ve been to South Carolina a lot. No one there talks like Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood. If only they did.) I would say if you’re interested in reading political thrillers, please do pick this one up. I don’t know if I’ll complete the trilogy myself, unless the other two entries in the series show up on a Kindle Daily Deal email.