Books.

[dsrtao]

_House of Cards_, by Michael Dobbs. It's the anti-"Yes, Minister". British political thriller in which a senior conservative politician brings down the current leadership and inserts himself at the top, without any concern for ethics or who gets hurt along the way. USAns without a good grasp on the UK governmental scheme will undoubtedly be lost. I wonder what US books assume a similar background knowledge of Federal government?

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I wonder what US books assume a similar background knowledge of Federal government?

Mostly, any thriller.

One of the quirks of US culture is that you guys expect everyone else to be familiar with your way of doing things, but don't see any need to know how things work elsewhere. I suspect NIH is one of the less-awful standard issue side effects of being a hegemonic power (and I'm pretty sure it was equally true of the UK a century ago).

(If you're willing to cheat, it makes it dead easy to write alien societies in SF -- just go somewhere outside North America on vacation, soak up the local colour, hybridize with somewhere else outside North America, and extrude for American eyes :)

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I have not (yet) read the book, but I have seen the BBC films based on it and its sequels. I thought that they were Most Excellent, though I can't speak as to how good they were as adaptations.

[hungrytiger]

As Alexx mentioned, _House of Cards_ was also a brilliant BBC mini-series (although they change the ending dramatically - email me if you want details). I have all three series - House of Cards, To Play the King, and The Final Cut - on VHS as well as all three books. Let me know if you want to borrow any of them.

BTW, Dobbs apparently so preferred the BBC mini-series ending to his own, that that became the retroactive continuity for his 2nd and 3rd books.