Issue #62
Last Update February 28, 2009
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Reviews Regular Citizen Elected President by Gert Innsry February 25, 2008 Some books have a fascinating plot line, full of suspense. Some books touch on the great issues of the day. Some books are poorly written but impossible to put down. Some books are beautifully written, but say nothing. Some books capture the reader with charm. "Regular Citizen Elected President", by Patricia M. Favaron, is one of the latter.
Sarah Parker, regular citizen, encounters a UFO, and by some mechanism never explained in the book, is elected President of the United States, with extraordinary powers: i.e. by a unanimous vote in Congress, she has been granted Absolute Power. The book unfolds mostly as Sarah Parker's stream of consciousness, and her naive, absurdly hopeful and somewhat puzzled voice provides the charm and humor that makes the book a success.
What would a Regular Citizen do with Absolute Power, especially if she is not greedy or ambitious, and is not really sure she should be wielding such influence? Why, try to improve the government, and in general attempt to make life better for all the nation's citizens, of course. Applying her brain and inexperience to problems as they arrive, Sarah Parker comes up with innovative (though sometimes silly) changes to the way the country is run. Surprisingly, these often work out well.
As the book progresses, an odd sort of tension builds. The reader keeps waiting for everything to fall apart, for President Parker's innovations and dictats to generate anger, or economic disaster, or war with other countries. We have seen in real life the incredible damage a bumbling, inexperienced, C student president can wreak on the nation and the world. To the author's credit, she does not take this easy path, but manages to sustain the naive, hopeful tone of the book to the very end.
As an allegory, this well-written book is oddly thought-provoking. As a fantasy, this book sustains a sense of reality-within-impossibility that more experienced authors would struggle to match. As a thoroughly good read, this book holds up well, and the author is smart enough to quit at 134 pages, before she wears out the reader's welcome. This is a good book to read when politics gets you down, or any other time, for that matter.
Regular Citizen Elected President by Patricia M. Faveron, 2007. ISBN I-4196-6784-X
www.booksurge.com
New York Stringer is published by NYStringer.com. For all communications, contact David Katz, Editor and Publisher, at david@nystringer.com
All content copyright 2009 by nystringer.com