"Button Man" by Paul Lyons

It's the hot summer of 1988, Michael Dukakis leads the elder George Bush in the polls, and while the over-arching events of the political conventions are in progress, Hawk and the rest of the "button gang" sell their buttons first to Democrats in Atlanta, then Republicans in New Orleans. They sell, as always, to either side of any persuasion, offering a unique underview of the American political process, amoral hucksterism, and a kind of grubby capitalism. Hawk is a gambler-canny, streetwise, full of hungers and debt, beset by loan sharks and his girlfriend's Ginsu-wielding ex-husband. His story explores trust-and trust betrayed; the ethics of the street-and ethics compromised. His story is that of an edgy outsider's strategies for survival, solvency, and love.

The adjective most often used to describe this book is "gritty". There's definitely a sense of reality about it, peeking into a life lived on the streets and at people most of us wouldn't want to associate with. But this perspective is what makes the book so interesting. The book follows the story of someone that I've seen many times, yet never actually seen. That is, I'd never considered these street vendors to have lives as intricate as my own; they simply existed as part of the scenery. Paul Lyons did a very good job of telling about a time in Hawk's life, making you understand who Hawk was and how he felt about things with very few words and suggestions rather than statements. The other characters in the story came and went without much, or any, exposition, only there when they interacted with Hawk, only developed when they were very important to Hawk. For all that the book was described as "gritty", there wasn't any gratuitous violence, drugs, or other such sinnery, which I appreciated- it kept the book feeling real. The dialogue was fast, natural and witty- I found myself actually laughing out loud at times. The one thing that was a  bit confusing about the writing was how easily it flipped between present and past- the present was written present tense, the past in past tense, and although this sounds pretty straightforward, in actually reading it takes a second to register the switch. This made the narrative nicely fluid, though. Hawk recalled memories the way you would really do it, swishing in and out without much announcement.

The real aim of the book was to talk about politics, especially the politics of 1988. I wish I had gone into the book with a little more priming on the important political figures and events of that time, as a lot went over my head. I got the gist, though, and I found myself to enjoy the manner in which Lyons wrote about politics and it's relation to economy and capitalism. Much of what he wanted to say was said through amusing ironies, the most obvious of which is that Hawk sells buttons to both political parties, smashing the other, as long as he can make a profit. He sells at the democratic convention then packs up and heads right over to the Republican convention.

The book was a short read, and very easy to get through- it's not the type of book that needs to be carefully analyzed. I ended up enjoying it immensely, which says a lot considering I've never been interested in any sorts of politics or political books. If you like politics, 1988, New York City, interesting perspectives, irony, and humor, go for this book! It doesn't seem to be very popular (it had exactly one review on goodreads) but I think that's simply due to the fact it hasn't been discovered, not that it's not well-written.