Nicole Cerniglia

AP Government and Politics

Mr. Kilkelly
16 August 2014

Mr. Matthews,
I was greatly impressed by your novel Hardball. Overall, I found Hardball enjoyable and
I can definitely see how this book has become a guide for politicians looking for success. The
organization of your ideas throughout the novel was superb and this allows your audience to
easily understand the advice you are giving. Breaking the book up into parts 1, 2, 3 and 4
allowed readers to categorize each tip of advice on how to succeed in the world of politics.
Another strength your book possesses is the chapter titles repetition throughout the chapter.
When explaining each quality a politician needs, you were able to incorporate the chapter title
into the commentary throughout the novel. Another great feature that Hardball has is its
extensive explanations of a quality or action that a successful politician must acquire or preform.
You were able to take one piece of advice and support its functionality through the lives and
experiences of multiple famous politicians in American history. You did not only include past
presidents, but also congressmen and even people in the background just trying to work their
way up. I found this very effective in proving that the methods you previously stated are
legitimate. Your novel Hardball contains several strong characteristics that allow it to be so
successful and are the main reasons that it has become a textbook for striving politicians.
Along with these various positive aspects of your novel, I have also come across things
that need improvement. To begin, I found the beginning of the first chapter slightly confusing
and difficult to follow. You opened the novel by going straight into factual evidence on President

Lyndon B. Johnson, without an explanation of the first piece of advice. Although this method
worked for other chapters, I do not think that for your opening chapter. It caused confusion on
what was being explained and I think this is something that should be edited. To eliminate this I
think you should begin the novel by explaining what you mean by its not who you know; its
who you get to know rather than jumping into details about Johnsons presidency. Also, when
explaining certain concepts it seemed to sometimes get very long and over-detailed. I think that
you could edit out certain parts where the evidence was superfluous to give the book a better
flow. These two comments were the only weak points that I discovered in Hardball, and by
changing them I think you could enhance the novel and its success.
While reading the book, I came across many interesting facts and parts of history that I
find very important for high school and college students. I would definitely recommend this
novel to anyone interested in American politics or government, especially students of those ages.
While reading Hardball, I came to agreement with the various reviews that claimed the novel to
be a guide for politicians and a textbook for politics. The novel is packed with important
and relevant information that can assist in the success of all types of people in fields other than
politics. The novel can be very useful in high school classes on American politics because it
provides true historical evidence and explains the reasoning behind the actions of many
politicians.
The way you discussed the principles for political success was effective and made it very
clear that the principles were true. You proved through example of previous famous politicians
ranging from president to background Washingtonians trying to reach success. I found this
approach to be very successful and it enabled each principle to be understood. The specificity in
your discussions was extremely beneficial because it allows the reader to thoroughly understand
each principle with no confusion. The only principle that I found unclear was spin! Although

you used the same explanation method that you did for each other tip, I found not as effective for
this chapter. This is because the name of the principle is not self-explanatory and it requires
more of a direct commentary from you rather than examples from other people. Spin! was the
only chapter that I found a problem with, the rest of Hardball was excellent and your approach to
writing it was successful.
Overall, Hardball was a great read and I enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it to
anyone interested in how politicians achieve success, and also to anyone taking American
politics classes. I think this book can aid those mentioned and more. Hardball is a distinguished
novel that deserves the high reviews that it received.