The Governor's Mansion

The empty showmanship of U.S. political campaigns, the glitz of Las Vegas in the 1960s, the seamy alliance of the Mafia and top politicians and the aspirations of a tradition-bound immigrant family converge and collide in Basque-American novelist Laxalt's engrossing story. The concluding volume in a family saga begun in The Basque Hotel and continued in Child of the Holy Ghost, it follows down-to-earth lawyer Leon Indart in his successful run for the Nevada governorship on a conservative Republican ticket; his attempt to rid the state's gambling industry of mob infiltration; and his narrow defeat in a race for the U.S. Senate. Leon's younger brother Pete, a journalist who becomes his aide, narrates the story, providing a witty, devastating look at a political process rife with voter apathy and ignorance, patronage, favor-swapping, dirty tricks and slick packaging of candidates. The two brothers' foray into politics causes confusion and a sense of loss in their white-haired father, a sheepherder clinging to Basque ways, and their supportive, pampering mother. Laxalt spices the novel with cameos of Howard Hughes, J. Edgar Hoover, mobster Moe Dalitz and odds-maker Jimmy the Greek. His honest, clean prose is a pleasure to read. (Oct.)