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The X President

Philip Baruth

A masterful blend of political satire and edgy social commentary, here is a wildly entertaining trip through recent American history and into the impending future. An incisive look at how we love and hate our political leaders, and how they love and hate us back, The X President touches the very heart of what it means to be president--and what a president means to America.

It is the year 2055 and America is entangled in a devastating world war--and losing badly. As the threat of homeland invasion grows stronger, the United States is desperate to change the tide, anyway it can.

Enter Sal Hayden, official biographer of a former president known as BC, now 109 years old and all but forgotten. Charismatic, controversial, and always willing to feel another person's pain, BC's political career, like his personal life, is marked by both uncanny triumphs and key blunders--some of which may have doomed the U.S. to defeat. Recording his story has not always been easy, but it has been straightforward. That is, until the day Sal is asked to rewrite it--and not just on the page. For Sal will be granted a biographer's most fantastic dream, one that will thrust her into the greatest moral dilemma of her life--and the world's most daring, dangerous, and spectacular spin job....

Set in the year 2055, and America is set to lose the Cigarette Wars. Terrorist bombings are the norm, and the state is now more Orwellien than land of the free. The start of the problems can be identified as the signing of Anti-tobacco Accord in the 1990s which is being chronicled by Sal Hayden s part the biography of the man who signed it, BC.

Then, when Sal is recruited to participate in an audacious plan to rewrite history so that the wars never happened, she finds herself on a fantastic journey she would never have imagined possible. At its heart, this is a novel concerned with American politics, and the history thereof.

The book is whilst extremely imaginative is grounded in possibility, and you can see how the future could pan out as described. The characterisation of BC, both young and old, is touching, insightful and critical. The supporting trio of associates (a beautiful special-ops expert who calls herself Victoria, a hard-nosed military man code-named James Carville, and a brilliant civilian code-named George Stephanopoulos) are well described, and play well in their roles as they set out to find a 16-year-old Arkansas boy who holds the key to America's salvation. Into this, the main protaginator, Sal, is thrown almost as a sounding board for the politics and ideals of the characters that she is surrounded by.

The book is entertaining, and will appeal to the politically/sci-fi/history inclined. There is a tendency for the writing to wind, but Baruth drops information steadily enough to keep you interested, and his spin on recent historical events makes you step back and reconsider events in new lights. The downside is that at the ending, whilst the plot lines tie up and there is a sense of closure, the broader discussion, and the queries over what lengths people would go to, and the possible consequences, remain largely unanswered.

Worth reading solely for the reflections on BCs career, and how future generations may reflect on his accomplishments.

21 Jan 2006 21:15 | (0) comments | Books