For Ann Matter - once a daringly original film-maker, now an improbably successful director of commercials - the invitation was extraordinary. Governor Henry Anderson needed a media adviser in his campaign for the presidency; would she accept the job? Though she has had little experience, or interest, in politics, the challenge proves irresistible - to take an unpolished but charismatic politician and remake him, marketing him to the American people as the incarnation of their most cherished ideals. Ellen Akins's third novel, Public Life, is a stunning exploration of how images have come to rule our lives, from the highest levels of government to the edgy accommodations of erotic politics. Akins's world is one saturated with print and pictures, where power is a function of how skillfully one manipulates the media. It is a world in which Ann Matter moves all too confidently, only dimly aware of its many seductions. Under her guidance, Anderson is victorious in his presidential bid, and Ann is rewarded with a position on his personal staff, responsible now for preserving the popular image she so brilliantly created. That image proves so compelling that Ann herself is won over by it, unwittingly setting illusion and reality on a collision course. As Ann's own precarious equilibrium is undermined by the persistent incursions of her past, Anderson's presidency is propelled into a series of scandals that expose the hollowness at its core and culminate in an inevitable, violent climax.
