How The Anonymous Obama Novel Ends

Have you heard about O: A Presidential Novel? It’s a book about “aspiration and delusion, set during the presidential election of 2012 and written by an anonymous author who has spent years observing politics and the fraught relationship between public image and self-regard.” Simon & Schuster publisher Jonathan Karp says,

The author is someone who has been in the room with Barack Obama and knows this world intimately. The author wishes to remain anonymous to avoid being pigeonholed or ignored or scorned on the basis of associations, views, or background.

Slate’s David Weigel, possessor of a review copy, reveals the book’s final sentence here, but let me tell you how it really ends. Someone with an attenuated connection to the president will make a considerably larger amount of money than if they had published under their own name, which they will eventually reveal without any detrimental effects to their professional reputation. I mean, you can see it coming a mile away, right?