Downie Previews His Book

You know the guessing game will begin once Leonard Downie Jr.’s new novel, The Rules of the Game, comes out in January from Knopf. …

Downie, who spoke to us from his new office at the Post Monday where he is now vice president at large — having left the executive editor job just last Friday — says there is no link to Post folks: “It is not about The Washington Post,” he stresses. “I wouldn’t do anything fictional about the Post.”

But, he reveals, the fictional editor of the paper, one Lou Runyan, is based partially on a Post legend: “The only person in the book modeled on a real person is the editor in the book, who is clearly modeled on Ben Bradlee, aspects of Ben Bradlee — including his bravery as an editor.”

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