Book Review: Roads & Circuses (Tom Mazzone)

Roads & Circuses

by: Tom Mazzone

Genre:  Comedy/Humor

Marcus O’Malley is the brown-nosing suck-up everyone despised in school. He also happens to be Ireland’s best known barrister who truly has it all: a beautiful runway-model wife, two perfect children, prestige, power and wealth. When he refuses a dangerous villain’s request to defend him of heinous crimes, Marcus is rightly intimidated. A seemingly random opportunity to run for political office pops up and only as means to save him from the threats does he decide to dive in.

With his reputation as a do-gooder, Marcus takes like a duck to water to the local scene and his meteoric rise through the party’s rank begins. But as he sets his sights on becoming Prime Minister, he must cooperate with unsavory colleagues, bide time and determine what’s best for him versus what’s best for the party. Could outside forces bring him down, ruin his career and potentially send him to jail? Can he play the game in the shark-infested waters of Irish politics? Does he want power just for the sake of having power? Is he able to see that the chaos and the mayhem in his life are self-created? Can he continue to fool all of the people all of the time? Including himself? 

Roads & Circuses is a thrilling satirical look at the world of politics and the duplicitous mind of a politician. It’s not so much what a politician says or does that should worry you, it’s what they actually THINK! And although set in Ireland, Marcus O’Malley could exist in any country or political party in the world.

**WE WERE GIVEN A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR THE FOLLOWING HONEST REVIEW**

I can't say that I would recommend this book as a comedy to anyone. In fact, the only time I even so much as smiled was when I was told it was supposed to be in the comedy genre. The challenge of this book was keeping myself form setting it down and walking away. It reminded me of reading the CNN network only it was based in Ireland.

So after reading numerous prologues, I finally reached the actual story. The shortened version is basically the story of Marcus O'Malley's successful career as a lawyer, which leads him to politics.
Maybe it was my lack of knowledge in Ireland politics and law that made it so difficult for my eyes to plot a course to the end of the book without stopping for directions numerous times. If I were to rank this by bookmarks (stars), I would give it 1.5 out of 5.

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