The Fourth K
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| Author | Mario Puzo |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Random House |
| Released | 1990 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 479 pp (hardcover edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-394-56996-2 (hardcover edition) |
| Preceded by | The Sicilian |
| Followed by | The Last Don |
The Fourth K is a novel by Mario Puzo, published in 1990. It is set during the Presidency of fictional "Francis Xavier Kennedy," nephew of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy.
[edit] Plot Summary
The Fourth K is best known because of its author's eerie ability to predict world events and expound them in a work of fiction. In a nutshell: (1) The scion of a political dynasty is in the White House. (2) He has a misbehaving blonde daughter. (3) There is a terrorist attack in Lower Manhattan. (4) A war in the Persian Gulf. (5) An Arab terrorist, the personification of evil, who it is all blamed on. (5) An impeachment. And on and on. Yet the Fourth K was written in 1989.
The novel begins with a world-weary President who has decided not to run for a second term in office, as his personal agenda has been picked apart by Congress, lobbyists and the ominous Socrates Group, made up of the richest and most influential men in America.
The assassination of the Pope on Good Friday, the kidnap and subsequent murder of Kennedy's daughter on Easter Sunday, and the discovery of a nuclear device in the heart of Manhattan have shocked the administration into action, and suddenly Francis Kennedy finds himself isolated by his opponents, who question his capacity to act.
Once the crisis has passed, the President vows to change the face of American politics forever, proposing a radical left-wing economic agenda but with very right-wing methods of governance. The novel details Kennedy’s re-election campaign and his fight for his vision of the future.
The novel's emphasis is on the characters. The reader learns about a character's background when he/she has to make a major decision. Critics have stated that, once the book has focused on a particular character, he/she is relegated to the background and never again returns to prominence.
Mario Puzo has said of The Fourth K: "The Fourth K was a [commercial] failure—but it was my most ambitious book."
