Author Of Political Novel Still A Mystery

The cloistered world of White House operatives and Washington journalists, where modesty rarely ventures, is abuzz with speculation over who among its pampered populace would write a successful satirical novel and not take credit for it.

“Reporters are an ego-crazed bunch, and who could resist publicly crowing if you had written a novel even half as good as ‘Primary Colors’?” political reporter Walter Shapiro admitted in last week’s issue of Time magazine.

Maddeningly, the author of this novel, a thinly disguised insider’s rendition of Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, has chosen to remain anonymous.

Clinton campaign managers and consultants and the reporters who covered them believe the author includes too many telling details not to have been there, or at least to have had a close relationship to someone who was.

“George Stephanopoulos is particularly obsessed with the book,” political reporter Mark Miller observes in Newsweek. “The president’s aide is startled by how his character’s thoughts - from wondering at his boss’s skill to disgust with his pandering - mirror his own.”

“Primary Colors” is narrated by the Stephanopoulos character - changed to Henry Burton, the preppie black grandson of a civil rights martyr.

Burton is deputy campaign manager for Jack Stanton, a Southern governor who is running for president with a lot of help from his smart wife, Susan, who is a lawyer with a fashion fondness for hair bands. When the campaign is threatened by allegations of her husband’s extramarital affairs, Susan avows her support on a national TV news show.

Does any of that sound familiar?

Shapiro, who covered the Clinton campaign, wrote that many of the characters are dead-on ringers and that “some of the portraits are so deliciously vicious, I can only assume the author is settling personal scores.”

The Reliable Source, the Washington Post’s gossip column, has speculated that “Primary Colors” was written by Lisa Grunwald, a novelist, magazine writer and sister of Mandy Grunwald, who was a media consultant in the 1992 Clinton campaign. But there is no confirmation, and rumors still abound.