Jeffrey Toobin is a staff writer at The New Yorker, the legal analyst at ABC News, and the author of the critically
acclaimed bestsellers A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President
and The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson. He served as an assistant United States attorney in Brooklyn
and as an associate counsel in the office of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh--which provided the basis for
his book Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer's First Case--United States Supreme Court v. Oliver North. He is a magna
cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. Toobin lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
Review
"An admirably clear, vigorously written, plain-spoken and common-sensical book."
--The New York Times Book Review
"A superb work of factual and legal analysis. . . . Few novels are as gripping."
--The New York Review of Books
"A story as taut and surprising as any thriller. . . . Unimpeachable page-turner."
--People
"A superlatively researched and written book."
--The New York Observer
"An irresistibly readable new overview of the whole ugly case."
--The Boston Globe
"A good read . . . a brave book."
--The Economist
"A rich and readable reprise . . . by the New Yorker writer who shows brilliantly how the American legal system
spun out of control."
--Chicago Sun-Times
"Compulsively readable. . . . A Vast Conspiracy delivers new information, provides arresting perspective and
is a helluva read for all that."
--New York Daily News
Random House Publishing Web Site, February, 2003
Summary
From the best-selling author of A Vast Conspiracy and The Run of His Life comes Too Close to Call--the definitive
story of the Bush-Gore presidential recount. A political and legal analyst of unparalleled journalistic skill,
Jeffrey Toobin is the ideal writer to distill the events of the thirty-six anxiety-filled days that culminated
in one of the most stunning Supreme Court decisions in history.
Packed with news-making disclosures and written with the drive of a legal thriller, Too Close to Call takes us
inside James Baker's private jet, through the locked gates to Al Gore's mansion, behind the covered-up windows
of Katherine Harris's office, and even into the secret conference room of the United States Supreme Court. As the
scene shifts from Washington to Austin and into the remote corners of the enduringly strange Sunshine State, Toobin's
book will transform what you thought you knew about the most extraordinary political drama in American history.
The Florida recount unfolded in a kaleidoscopic maze of bizarre concepts (chads, pregnant and otherwise), unfamiliar
people in critically important positions (the Florida Supreme Court), and familiar people in surprising new places
(the Miami relatives of Elián González, in a previously undisclosed role in this melodrama). With
the rich characterization that is his trademark, Toobin portrays the prominent strategists who masterminded the
campaigns--the Daleys and the Roves--and also the lesser-known but influential players who pulled the strings,
as well as the judges and justices whose decisions determined the final outcome. Toobin gives both camps a treatment
they have not yet received--remarkably evenhanded, nonpartisan, and entirely new.
The post-election period posed a challenge to even the most zealous news junkie: how to keep up with what was happening
and sort out the important from the trivial. Jeffrey Toobin has now done this--and then some. With clarity, insight,
humor, and a deep understanding of the law, he deconstructs the events, the players, and the often Byzantine intricacies
of our judicial system. A remarkable account of one of the most significant periods in our country's history, Too
Close to Call is endlessly surprising, frequently poignant, and wholly addictive.
