WASHINGTON, July 31, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Sometimes the fine line between "what might have been" and "what really was" blurs in hindsight. Former assistant to President Richard Nixon and retired ABC lobbyist Gene Cowen has poetically combined his past and fantasies together in his newly released book, My Life, A Novel (now available through 1stBooks).
The book moves rhythmically between fact and fiction and combines the desire for love and the harsh reality of war and politics. Cowen begins his unusual storyline with his real-life flying experiences as an Air Corps navigator in the rough combat of World War II. With a turn of a page, readers enter the author's imagination and meet his "alter-ego" Navigator, whose plane is shot down over northern Italy. He's rescued by an Italian family and is captivated by Maria, the daughter. Later, he meets Maria in Rome, where she works as a prostitute. He helps her escape the business and she falls in love with him, but marries another man.
She follows Navigator, who's also married, to Washington D.C., where her husband, John Alden, gets involved with right-wing extremists, a decision that puts a mob contract on his life. Navigator works a deal with a mob boss to save Alden, who then heads a "surveillance" operation for the Nixon administration. The operation is busted and the Watergate scandal is exposed. Navigator again saves Maria's husband -- this time from criminal charges -- by arranging for Alden to reveal the voice-activated taping in Nixon's office to investigators in exchange for his freedom.
Flashing between stories, Cowen details his real-life career in politics during the Nixon era. Cowen begins as a journalist, later works in Congress and eventually becomes President Nixon's assistant, along side John Erlichman, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. He watched in "awe" some of the "shenanigans" during the pre-Watergate days, he says. When, in confusion, he asks an official about the legality of secret White House fundraising, the official replies, "Hey, we're the government. Whatever we say is legal, is legal." Cowen leaves the White House before the Watergate scandal and moves on to become Washington vice president, the chief lobbyist, at ABC.
A compelling mix of reality and fantasy, My Life, A Novel will enthrall readers with the ill-fated romance of Navigator and Maria and the remarkable true story of Cowen's career amid the political drama of the early 1970s and later success in the broadcasting industry.
Cowen has a bachelor's and a master's from Syracuse University. Prior to his work in politics, he was a reporter for the Syracuse, N.Y. Herald Journal. He and his wife currently live in Washington D.C.
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