‘Sammy’s House’ might work better as a movie

Can sweetness survive a trip through the high-speed spin machine of the White House?

Kristin Gore, the 30-year-old daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, tackles the question head-on in “Sammy’s House” – the continuing saga of Samantha Joyce, an idealistic, insecure twentysomething trying to balance the demands of her White House job with the challenges of a long-distance romance. Sammy’s political career began on Capitol Hill in Gore’s first novel, “Sammy’s Hill.”

Gore’s inside-the-beltway insight hits close to home. A rock-solid vice president (and former senator) is hobbled by the character flaws of a charismatic president. There are lies and cover-ups, special prosecutors and partisan trickery. It could be the mid-1990s, if not for the characters’ addictive abuse of Blackberry PDAs and the relentless blogger Sammy must expose.

Gore roots her story firmly in the near future with a cowboy ex-president atoning for his “endless catastrophic reign” as the unwitting butt of a reality TV joke. Gore’s publishers call the novel a “must-read” before the 2008 elections, but the curious choice to leave war off the radar in her fictional Washington saps the story of much of its political relevance. This book is better suited for the beach than the Beltway.

Her honest insight – both emotional and political – provide a strong backbone for “Sammy’s House.” The story is good, but it starts slow and climaxes in a hasty finish.

And Gore’s strong screenwriting skills – she wrote for “Futurama” and “Saturday Night Live” – intrude on the flow of her novel. Mishaps involving camel spit and naked romps with Thanksgiving desserts seem more like comic gags in adolescent movies than moments in what is essentially the story of a quirky, likable young woman struggling to stay pure in a political cesspool.

Gore is already working on the screenplay for “Sammy’s Hill.” Sammy’s sojourn to the White House may well end up being one of those rare books that works better as a movie.