Larry Beinhart

Boy did this book have a lot going on that was right up my alley:

1. The hero is a librarian, so there's a lot of poetic musing over the beauty of libraries, democracy, freedom, etc.

2. The villains are Republicans who are hell bent on controlling the world by any means necessary. Some of them bear strong resemblances to real politicians, e.g. Dick Cheney and George W.

3. It was a page-turner AND well-written AND had some good laughs. That, friends, is a rare combination. There's even some good poetry here and there.

Now, a few warnings. There's some graphic sexual violence that disturbed me a little. And I did roll my eyes a few times at how unbelievably evil the Republicans were. But Beinhart found a great Adam Smith quote to rationalize it: "Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience." That is, if the bad guys were just greedy, there would be limits to what they'd do, but because they feel their cause is righteous, they try to win by any means necessary, even MURDER and SUBVERTING DEMOCRACY.

Obviously, if conspiracy theories annoy you, you probably won't like this book. But if you're looking for a wry political thriller that was clearly written by a Democrat, this will fit the bill.… (más)

Here is a propaganda novel about propaganda. The plot revolves around the premise that the first Gulf War under Bush Sr., was conceived and developed as a war movie, with a big Hollywood producer and a famous film director in charge of the project. The story is packaged as a crime novel, with a Mickey Spillane type character—a masculine, tough, wisecracking covert security agent who becomes romantically linked with a famous and gorgeous actress—whose mission is to retrieve the memo written by a dying Lee Atwater that gave birth to the idea.

The style is witty, the plot has the required complexity and requisite twists and turns, and moreover, is very well written. I enjoyed every minute I spent with this book, savoring it like a delicious snack.

It does have some unusual traits. Third person omniscient narrative is interspersed with the first person of the hero. Also, because the book is sort of 'faction', rather than pure fiction, Beinhart has footnotes at the end of the chapters, which is strange for a novel. Some people might wonder why he didn't write a straight non-fiction book, but for me I thought the concept worked well. So reader be aware, my rating is subjective and you might not appreciate it in the smae way as I did. If you like straight crime drama, you might want to check out his Tony Cassella series, which I intend to read and rate.
(By the way, if you've seen the movie 'Wag the Dog' with Hoffman and DeNiro, it won't spoil the book for you, since, in Beinhart's reply as to whether the movie was faithful to the book, he said yes. 'They only changed the plot and the characters!' Funny coming from him, since he himself wrote the screenplay!)… (más)