Campaign Ruby by Jessica Rudd
This week I finished reading Campaign Ruby by Jessica Rudd, daughter of former PM Kevin Rudd. I was fortunate enough to have purchased an autographed copy and had subtle hopes that the authentic signature would enhance the quality of the story.
My opinion? As far as readability, Rudd certainly has ability in the craft of writing. The book was fast-paced and I barely noticed how many pages I was reading. I breezed through its 324 pages of large font in about a week. Rudd’s knack for using words and word-plays for cutting, humourous effect were enviable.
Rudd had submitted her story for publication well before her father was politically assassinated, but it was telling that she was able to somewhat predict what happened to her father during the Campaign Ruby story.
“... a senior government backbencher had masterminded the plot to get rid of [former Prime Minister Patton within his own party] on the proviso that he would become Minister for Foreign Affairs, but a callous last-minute manoeuvre had left him stranded on the backbench with a mere promise of a position in the outer ministry if the party retained government” (pp. 139-140).
Having said that, as someone who’s studied politics and has a passionate interest in the subject, the book was largely disappointing. It shed little light on the political process and the formation of government, which is something that I would have expected from the daughter of a former PM. The story’s excessively driven by the main character, and the reader is left with more insight into the binge drinking, lascivious, foul-mouthed habits of Ruby Stanhope than they do about politics. There were moments where I got so tired of hearing about Ruby, her gay aunty and partner, and how Ruby was flirting with an Adonis-like journalist, that I simply wanted her to get into the ‘meat and veg’ of the political process.
But it never eventuated.
The main character, Ruby, had been employed to be a financial policy advisor to the hypothetical Leader of the Opposition (the LOO) but she never actually crafted any financial policy, a gap in the plot that Rudd never closed. At the end of the book I was left wondering, “What did this character do? If her job was to contribute to a political campaign instead of embarassing herself and dragging her leader’s campaign into disrepute, what did she add that someone else could have done?”
As a Christian, I was disappointed with Campaign Ruby. Unnecessary swear words are replete throughout, and the sexual goings-on of the main character weakened the plot rather than enhancing it. Rudd’s comedic dismissal of the character’s loose living left a lot to be desired and her staunch advocacy of the rights for gay couples to adopt children at the end of the book was somewhat startling.
The story was more a commentary of a woman who dilly dallied in a political campaign by sheer fluke. In this regards, it read like a glass of flat lemonade.
In the end, Campaign Ruby suggests more about the life of the main character and of Rudd herself than it did about politics and that was a big disappointment indeed. I’d give it a 5 out of 10.
