A con artist with no political experience convinces people that he cares about them and is divinely chosen to lead. What could go wrong? For those who don't know the answer, Ben Fountain (Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk) makes it clear in his therapeutically brittle satire Rasputin Swims the Potomac. The Supreme Court has ruled that the president of the United States, "a born-rich brat, a New York City real estate developer"--whose name is redacted throughout the novel--can serve a third term. He's in a chipper mood until, as reported by Clarence Thomas Jr. (no relation), a Black journalist for the Dallas Daily news site, attendees at the president's South Carolina rally start wailing in the country's "latest outbreak of the so-called weeping sickness." This looks bad on TV.
What's an image-conscious president to do? Luckily for him, a pro wrestler named Rasputin is about to win a bout when fans in attendance begin weeping, whereupon he places his hands upon them and cures them. Rasputin claims he really is the Russian monk murdered in 1916. Never mind that he was born Patrick Walsh Strickland in Buffalo, N.Y., and was a Green Beret. The president still chooses him to be his new running mate. Add Faith Spack, a 26-year-old aide who starred on the reality show Nashville Next Gen and whose pious mom had her out of wedlock after an affair with a billionaire, and the result is a delicious picaresque. Nothing can top the venality of its source material, but this is a hilarious and effervescent lampoon. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer