Growing Up Political in Chicago : JACK GANCE<i> by Ward Just (Houghton Mifflin: $17.95; 279 pp.) </i>

Credit Ward Just with good timing. The publication of this stimulating tale of our two most politically obsessed cities happens to coincide with a wild mayoral primary in Chicago and a transfer of power in Washington.

Examining the education of a young man in the science of politics and his evolution from idealist to realist, the novel moves briskly from Gance’s early successes “in the shadows” of the Machine to the nation’s capital. There, he employs skills learned in the wards to become a “Mr. Fix-It” with a White House address.

After 20 years in the District, he returns to Illinois to put what’s left of his political and ethical resolve to the ultimate test.

In the political trenches, the first and last lesson taught is loyalty--the rewards and drawbacks of which are the cornerstone of this novel. Jack Gance’s father, a businessman and fringe player in Chicago politics, didn’t pay the piper, and his independence landed him in jail; his son took a different path and fared better, but at no small cost to himself and his family.

A Midwesterner and journalist in Vietnam and Washington before turning to fiction, the 53-year-old Just writes with an economy and eye for detail rare among today’s novelists. “Jack Gance” covers 40 years of complex family history and political trends, yet no words are wasted and--at a mere 279 pages--it is a rich and entertaining journey.

Through his protagonist, Just’s ideas are rendered in low-calorie bursts of prose that demonstrate a clarity of vision and a unique insight into human nature. This, for example, is Gance’s view of his future, as seen from the University of Chicago in 1959:

“My last year at the university I discovered the world outside, and it was not as dangerous as I had feared. The world was approachable after a fashion, badly needing reform and reconstruction. I buried myself in work, American elections, a man’s work in a man’s world: politics.”

Then, there is this succinct definition of the profession--one I wish my professors had offered, instead of four months of pontifications: “Assemble coalitions, marry one region to another, cut and splice the map, rewire the circuits; that was politics.” Boom.

“Reform and reconstruction” were impossibly idealistic concepts in the Windy City throughout most of the Daley regime. As the buffoonish alderman Paddy Bauler boasted in 1955, “Chicago ain’t ready for reform yet.” Wasn’t then, probably isn’t now--still, the pursuit of such goals makes for a good story.

Gance uses polling theories developed at the university--and new to the party hacks--to steer the course for John F. Kennedy’s success in Illinois in 1960. In doing so, Gance impresses “the Boss” and the boys “downtown,” but nearly blows his fledgling career when he has an affair with the wife of a politically connected lawyer (“the kind of law where you don’t have to open a law book, or even own one”).

Gance eventually is pushed out of the nest and lands in Washington, where he makes his reputation as an “inside man.” After experiencing “burnout,” he moves on to consulting work.

When he decides to run for Senate, Gance must wrestle with the question of rejoining the Machine to ensure victory or going “independent,” as did his father, and likely losing. Just frames this inner conflict in a fascinating way, focusing the entire debate on a golf match with a wily old political fixer.

Many of the philosophies and transactions in “Jack Gance” are reminiscent of those attributed to the Mafia in various books and movies, especially those situations involving questions of loyalty: “This is a valuable lesson . . . that (a person) must stand up, that when a deal’s done it can’t be undone and that when you give your word you keep it.” Sounds like Vito Corleone, but the voice belongs to a respected Chicago attorney.

Indeed, years after both have left Chicago, Gance’s embittered father unfairly accuses his son of deserting him and going to work “for the Mob” and the money.

By the end, it’s hard to know what to make of Gance’s decisions and compromises, but this ambivalence rings true with our increasingly cynical view of politics and politicians. Mostly, we are grateful to have been left alone with an insider, an eyewitness, and have learned something--however ugly--about the motivations of politicians and the seductive nature of power.

Just makes politics a substantially more colorful calling than it actually is--certainly as evidenced by the drab 1988 presidential campaign--and the people represented here wouldn’t be as interesting if drawn by a lesser writer. His contribution to our understanding of the political game in this and other novels is enormous, and he deserves a broad and enthusiastic readership.