The Overton Window
A Book Review
Deborah Venable
06/24/10
To
say that this book is disturbing would be a reach, unless you’ve been living
under a rock and know little of such things that go on in the world these
days.
Glenn
Beck’s latest offer, The Overton Window, published by Mercury Radio Arts, a
division of Simon and Schuster, is billed as a fiction “thriller” but contains
more fact than fiction. Mr. Beck
himself referred to it as “faction.”
While the characters he weaves into the story are certainly products of
imagination, you can’t help but get the feeling that they are all based on
someone in the history books. Indeed,
this book is replete with history as the real “characters” turn the imaginary
ones into more shadowy impression than fleshed out human beings.
This
is not a book to be read for its entertainment qualities because it is
impossible to “lose yourself” in the story.
As a veteran reader of some of the best storytellers in the world, I am
more than qualified to say that. My
grade on the story itself would not be above a C, but Mr. Beck can thread the
needle of unease with the yarn of truth better than most who dare to impart
knowledge these days. For that, he gets
an A+.
Just
the reintroduction of the Overton Window concept is of great educational
benefit, even though you are not lead by the hand to obtain a deep
understanding of the concept through the characters of this book. The very youth of the main character may
actually be the biggest stumbling block to gaining any vision from his
experiences. I might have preferred to
see him as older with much more extra-scholastic experience in the world around
him. Perhaps a stint in the military
would have helped him, I don’t know.
His life-changing catalyst, the girl of his dreams, is almost too wise
beyond her years and with the seeming ability to be very naïve when it suited.
The
old man’s “clients” though shadowy by design, could have leant more of their
characters to a more thrilling climax in a story that was going for the heart
of the reader, but, again, Beck chose to substitute more fact for fiction in
his handling of these subjects. They
didn’t want to stand out.
My
favorite characters were Bailey and Kearns.
Their interaction reminded you that you were in their story, and they
were woven as believable in every way.
More of their story would have been a welcome substitute for the rich
boy awakening in a word his father was helping to construct, but I really don’t
think the author set out to write an entertaining book.
Mr.
Beck’s challenge to make you think continues in a painstakingly constructed
“afterward” chapter with directions to a fact finding tour that you can’t help
but take.
Is
the book worth its price? Yes. Is the author uniquely talented to tell such
a story? Yes. Would I recommend it? Yes
– just don’t expect to be entertained!