This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC studios and the New Yorker.

Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

A young man, a little bit adrift, looking for a job and a sense of purpose,

finds his way to working on a presidential campaign.

That's the opening of a new novel by Vincent Cunningham, who's a staff writer at the New Yorker.

The candidate at the center of the story is a long shot, a young black first-term

senator from the state of Illinois.

I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America.

Now you'll surmise that the character is Barack Obama in everything but name.

The narrator of the story, the young campaign worker, is named David.

And though this is a novel we're talking about, David's experiences on the Obama campaign

are closely based on Vincent Cunningham's own life in the years before he became a journalist.

Vincent, I haven't enjoyed a novel this much in a long time, and I want to start with the very beginning.

The novel begins with an incredibly

bally choice you call it great expectations why not? Well yeah what's

what is so bally about it is the utter originality. You know, it's just like, what is a title

that no one else has ever had?

It took me so long to figure out.

A becoming of age now.

That's right.

Well, I can tell you that our colleague, our beloved colleague Emily Nussbaum at a party sort of just said it.

I don't know where. She's like, you know what would be great if a novel like that could be called great expectations?

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