Call it the Age of Apology: politicians, sports stars and entertainers have all had to choke out reluctant mea culpas to save a career or an endorsement contract. In his sixth novel, A Thousand Pardons, Jonathan Dee (a Pulitzer finalist for The Privileges) cleverly explores this phenomenon, mostly through the eyes of a victim whose life has been blown apart by her husband's misbehavior and who must find her way to forgiveness.
In a single misbegotten evening whose highlights include a clumsy sexual advance on a summer associate at his New York law firm and an arrest for drunk driving, Ben Armstead spectacularly applies a torch to both his legal career and his foundering marriage. His wife, Helen, takes a position at a nondescript public relations firm, where her knack for getting miscreants to offer sincere apologies for their wrongdoing brings a parade of clients through the door. But Helen's skill at "apology wrangling" doesn't translate into an ability to connect with her sullen teenage daughter or to understand her husband's attempts to salvage their relationship. Helen's biggest challenge arrives when she's thrust into a PR disaster created by Hamilton Barth, a controversial actor with serious self-esteem problems.
In this fast-moving, consistently entertaining story, Dee's depictions of his characters--all of whom are possessed of intelligence and wit, if not always the best judgment--never fall back on condescension. If you read A Thousand Pardons, the next time you watch a disgraced public figure shuffle up to a bank of microphones, there's a good chance this coolly intelligent novel will spring to mind and you'll see with fresh eyes as that well-rehearsed scene plays out. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer