Matt McAvoy Book Review

If you’re worried this is going to be a mind-numbing book about politics, you couldn’t be more wrong.  It is a hugely entertaining and genuinely fun, “mostly true” tale of two young-at-heart grown-ups who just decide, one day, they won’t sit around and do nothing while their country goes to the dogs around them – a sentiment I’m sure many of us share in the current climate.  But I don’t want to downplay the validity of their mission; they’re clearly both exceptionally smart guys – particularly the primary narrator, Heath Hamrick – who work in the teaching profession.  They learn many things along the way, but most notably two stand out: political campaigning can be pretty ruthless at all levels, and it is not glamourous by any means; Heath and the aspiring candidate, his best friend Todd Allen, seem to spend their lives eating in cheap diners and putting on face-aching smiles.  With their professed disdain for social situations and people generally, perhaps politics wasn’t really for them; there is a palpable sense of relief when their campaign concludes.

Whatever side of the political fence you’re on, this book is really a light-hearted, almost comic account of behind-the-scenes organized chaos on the campaign trail.  Obviously, being set in 2017, during his presidential tenure, there is a lot of mention of the dreaded T-word, but the important point here is that political passion comes and goes in contemporary waves; it is the message these two guys are trying to send to their kids and the world at large which is the real premise of this book: some things in life are too important to just keep talking about.  Kudos to these guys for standing up and giving a credible, sincerely earnest shot at getting involved.  Perhaps the one thing we can all take from this life-lesson, with Todd and Heath as our fall guys, is that the people who achieve notable success in politics are just not like you and I, but rather differently wired, and perhaps driven by less virtuous motivations.  As for the voters – well, if they’re as fickle in such numbers as this account would seem to suggest, then no wonder the Western world is such a mess.

I don’t know just how much of the actual writing part of this book Todd contributed to, but it’s fair to say that Heath is an excellent writer.  Quite honestly, the subject matter could have been anything, and I believe he would have imparted it with the same fantastic sense of humour (the book is genuinely very funny throughout), brilliant linguistic talent and mischievous, childlike frivolity.  The constant movie references seem to be almost consciously employed as a crutch, to contrast the stuffy reality of the political world the serious adults around them inhabit, while Todd and Heath banter and curse like teenagers.

I really enjoyed Worse Than You Think.  It felt a little long in moments, but I don’t think there was ever a time when I felt it wasn’t entertaining me.  It could be summed up by all of the following: fun to read; incredibly well written by a clearly well-educated author; loaded with good humour and humility, and very enlightening about American ground-level politics – all of this packaged in a book which is, in a nutshell, really about two naïve idealists who care enough to get involved, making sacrifices and inspiring others along the way.  A highly recommended read.