It may well be that by November 2020, the American people will have learned enough about Trump’s corrupt and unethical acts as president that a majority will vote for anyone running against him. But assuming that Trump is still in office, the question of the election will be: Can any of the Democrats recreate and energize the Obama coalition? All of them have talents and strengths—but all come up short with crucial elements of it.

Cathleen Schine is an instinctively funny writer—not one of those who populate “Humor” sections in bookstores, with their demented determination to make you laugh, but a novelist of sustained light wit and great formal economy. Her scenes in her new novel are especially lean and staccato, everything counting, the dialogue concise and convincingly absurd.