A wild idea becomes the best idea for one lost soul with a huge personality and minuscule ambition.
Austin Grant is a drinker, a ladies man, and about as directionless as you can be. He might come across as content being a not-so-hard-working lawyer, winning cases with his smooth tongue and absolutely outrageous confidence, but maybe he’s not content after all. Maybe he’s finally putting together what he can do with his life to give it meaning.
His best idea comes just as all of his best ideas come: drunk and seeking attention. He decides to put his smooth-talking nature to the test and beat a Texas politician that he holds a personal grudge against in a political race for the ages.
But when he pitches the idea to his best friend Martin Wolfe—and just about everybody else in the bar that night—Martin thinks he has to be joking. He’s never taken anything seriously in his whole life. Is he really going to start now? But the question’s really: Does he have to?
After the love of his life, Marie, leaves him behind, he sets his sights on the senate race. Along the way, he could either learn a thing or two about himself and politics, or he could just go on the longest, most expensive ploy for attention he’s ever tried.
Bathing with JFK is a surprisingly heartfelt coming of age novel where the kid is already a thirty-two year-old man. He doesn’t seem to care about anything, but when he has the revelation to run, it seems he might just be turning things around. The change doesn’t come overnight though. This novel’s got enough humor and outlandishness to fill five political novels, and it’s all wrapped up into one silly, laugh-inducing package. Austin is a wildly immature leading man who goes from directionless to direction, even if that wasn’t what he planned.
The first thing that jumps out at you is the voice. Ken Wall is one hell of a writer, and it shows from the very first chapter. For a while you might be wondering why in the world he’s putting his talents to telling this story about this man—all humor, booze, and unseriousness—but as the prospect of winning the race gets more possible, his directionless immaturity transforms into real, genuine purpose.
Where Wall really hits his stride is when the shift starts to happen—from a care-about-nothing protagonist to a guy who realizes this hapless idea gains support from his friends and maybe the rest of the state. It asks: do you have to be a good guy to be a politician, or can you just play the long game of pretending you are until you’re forced into it?
Bathing with JFK is packed with humor. Austin is a wild guy to follow around and root for. Readers who are a little more sensitive to racism and misogyny might not like Austin along the way, especially with Wall’s occasional dips into cultural dialects, but if you’ve got thick skin and a willingness to laugh at the unseriousness of life, you’ll be glad you came for the ride. Austin’s dialogue is undeniably funny and sharp; the guy’s always got a quip, especially when the situation doesn’t call for it.
There are a few chapters thrown in here, like “Jesus Saves” and “Yellows Can Be Tricky,” that have too much detail and not enough plot movement. It can make things difficult to stay on board at times, but if you stick through it, you’ll find a surprising amount of heart along the way. Sure, the book may be a little bigger than it needs to be, but it never weighs the whole thing down. The voice carries you through to a big pay-off in the end.
For the straight-laced political fiction reader, this novel may meander a bit too much, but for those who see the reality of politics—filled with characters who you wouldn’t root for if you heard them rambling in a bar one night—you’ll love the heartfelt coming of age tale beneath the surface.
Bathing with JFK is a funny, action-packed ride to the senate with an impressive voice and enough hijinks to keep you laughing.
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