Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was hesitant to type out this review, because I know most likely it is just going to lead to a wealth of "not helpfuls" based solely on the rating. But oh well, I want to review this book because...wow. To start off, I'm not a big fan of Beck and my politics are on the other side of the spectrum from him. Generally though, I do enjoy a good thriller. Beck introduces this novel saying that it is "faction," driving home the point that he is basically taking something he thinks could happen, and then pushing the edges of it to the extreme. The problem with the book comes not from the politics (which admittedly are very silly in parts), but rather from the overall clunkiness of the storyline. The book references Star Wars quite a bit and you can see just how much that series of movies influenced the book. In the role of Princess Leia, we have Molly. She is the leader of the Rebel Alliance...I mean Founder's Keepers, the ragtag group of Ron Paulish patriots trying to save the world. Noah Gardner is Luke Skywalker, him of the evil father and reluctant hero. Arthur Gardner plays Darth Vader. But that isn't particularly fair. Arthur Gardner is really an avatar for George Soros, or at least what people like Glenn Beck think Soros is. Gardner is a PR exec. who is responsible for creating Restless Leg Syndrome, Che shirts and the Iraq War. With his billions from the ad and PR industries, he decides he is going to remark the world as a sort of Aristotlian Aristocracy. To accomplish this, he needs to spark enough fear and panic to move window of acceptable actions towards this government by "the best." That window I referenced is the "Overton Window" of the title. Noah begins the book by just basically doing what his father tells him to do, even though from any outside observer, it is pretty clear that whatever Arthur Gardner is planning, it is pretty evil. Then after meeting Molly, the pretty girl in the mailroom, he attends what amounts to a Tea Party rally with her. There is a setup at the rally to make them look violent as well as to kidnap one of the leaders. The books then plummets into a series of double crosses, political monolouges and then finally, a wee bit of action. Beck is doing what he can with the book to try and push his political beliefs via a mroe palatable method than his radio, tv or political books. However, too often characters launch into long political ramblings at seemingly awkward times. By now I'm sure everyone has heard of the discussion of the flat tax after our couple's first kiss and it is as awkward as you would expect. The writing style is poor as well. However, I noticed it more in the first half of the book than the second half. I can't tell if it actually improved or I just got used to it. In the first half of the book we are treated to a paragraph filled with cliche's that made me laugh while reading it: "Noah noticed that the atmosphere in the bar seemed to have changed during the few minutes that the woman had been on the stage. It wasn't just that you could hear a pin drop, it was the whole feel of the place. She had them in the palm of her hand." Wow. Again, the dialouge is clunky merely because a good half of the dialouge takes the form of political monolouges. Arthur Gardner has only a few scenes in the book, but all of them are monolouges talking about the greatness of Saul Alinsky, how he can change the world and how several thousand lives are perfectly fine to lose in this day and age. He is a cartoon character of a bad guy. Most of the characters are cartoons. Noah is mostly an avatar for the story instead of being a real character. Molly is smart and beautiful. She lives in communes and can handle guns. Hollis, her partner is a big mountain man. It is also interesting to note that the bad guy is New York and the good guys are all rural characters. Beck certainly makes his views about the Tea Party known as Founder's Keepers serves as their stand in (on a related note, I really wanted the bad guys to be "Losers Weepers"). While he beleives that most of the people at the events are patriots, he warns of the "intelopers," the Anti-semites, the racists etc etc. At other points though, the characters just kind of lose themselves. On one hand, one of the impassioned pleas from the FK rally is for non violence: "You're angry, I know you are, and you should be," the speaker continued. "but now I need to urge you, to demand of you, that you renounce anyone who suggests violence. Just like Dr. King, we aim to eliminate evil, not those who perpetrate it. To speak of violence in any form is to play right into the hands of those who oppose us. They've already invested countless hours into portraying us as violent, hateful racists, and they are just waiting for the chance to further that story line. Don't give it to them. Instead of Bill Ayers, give them Benjamin Franklin. Instead of Malcolm X, give them Rosa Parks. Instead of bin Laden, give them Gandhi. They are well prepared on how to use violence to their advantage, but they have absolutely no idea how to use peace. Yet, 100 pages later they are seen making their own ammunition in their commune condo. They apparently do a lot of militia like training with guns as well. Molly is reported to be a great quick draw shot. Unless she is the world's oddest hunter, it seems rather likely that she is willing to meet violence with violence to some extent. Everything else aside though, not much happens throughout the book. Things are implied, speeches are spoke with great frequency and in the end the amount of thrills in the book are minimal. The plot is pretty simplistic and its easy to see where it is going. Its clear the nuclear bombs and the occasional gun fight are simply the applesauce for thriller readers that the bitter pill of politics is ground up into to make it more palatable. Demille, Flynn and Thor all have similar politics in their novels, but unlike Beck's, the politics is surrounded in action, not the other way around. So there is an honest review, enjoy the unhelpful button if you must.