The 28th Amendment

by Neal Rechtman

The 28th Amendment is a timely and compelling political thriller that explores the very real potential for conflict between entertainment and politics in a media-defined age. What happens when an actor who portrays a fictional US president on television gets drawn into real-word politics? In Neal Rechtman's future political thriller The 28th Amendment , set in the year 2019, an actor named Victor Glade plays the President in a long-running television series called The Oval Office , and does his job a little too well--embarrassing and threatening the Administration of the real President, Republican Burton Grove. When a wealthy fan of The Oval Office launches a campaign to draft Glade into the 2020 presidential race, Glade insists he won't run, and instead discharges his civic duty by endorsing the 28th Amendment--a proposal to replace private campaign contributions with public funding for federal elections. The already-paranoid Grove Administration, vehemently opposed to the 28th Amendment, soon concludes that The Oval Office is no longer just a television show but also an unregistered political party, and tries to shut it down. The result is a startling, twisting tale of espionage, domestic terrorism and presidential politics that pits the Grove Administration's theocratic Chief of Staff, Morely James, against the enormously popular Victor Glade and his coincidence-prone, card-playing lawyer Jeremy Lerner. By turns intelligent, fascinating, and outrageously funny, Rechtman's narrative works on several it's a chilling parable of the US government's relentless stoking and exploitation of our nation's post-9/11 Osamaphobia; and in the realm of non-fiction, the 28th Amendment is an actual proposed amendment to the US Constitution.

266 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2007

Reviews

[Renimar · Rating 2 out of 5]

The initial premise was intriguing and what had me purchase the book, a decision I now regret. This is a library loaner book.

In many ways, this seems like a West Wing fan fiction piece, set in a universe beyond the series where the poor, do-gooder liberals just trying to put on a good show are menaced by the insidious right-wing conspirators occupying the actual White House. The machinations that the administration goes through applied copious amounts of violence to my suspension of disbelief. I expected and hoped for something moderately resembling real-world politics (you know, like the West Wing show that clearly spawned this) than the OMG-REPUBLICANS-ARE-BAD whack-you-over-the-head ridiculousness in this book. With Democrats in solid control of both houses of Congress AND the Presidency in the real world, the liberal persecution complex angle just doesn't work.

The entire piece is one big public policy-wank piece where both the book's characters and the authour are pushing for a public financing amendment to the Constitution. However, in light of the meteoric rise in public sector deficits, asking the voters to approve an amendment which would enshrine a PERMANENT public expenditure that only benefits politicians is more than a stretch -- it's pure fantasy.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you liked "The West Wing", like politics, and play bridge, you'll probably like this novel. I fit two of the three categories (I've never played bridge), and enjoyed the book. The plot seemed a little slow-paced (though still interesting) at times, especially for a book billed as a thriller, the ending was very abrupt (I would have at least liked to see an epilogue to tie everything together), and annoyingly, there is a spoiler on the cover art. I found it unlikely that the process for choosing a presidential nominee would be so different by 2020 (when this book takes place); there was no evidence that statewide primaries/caucuses were still part of the process, nor any explanation that I caught as to why they'd been discontinued -- but it did work for the plot, and hey, it's the future, so I guess anything is possible. Gadgets called "tablets" seem to have replaced laptops in the book, which was a good call on the author's part given that this was written before the advent of the iPad. (Certainly better than most future fiction does at predicting future technology!) Overall, an interesting and unique novel. And for "West Wing" fans, it will probably make you wish that the show "The Oval Office" existed in real life!

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is my 1st cousin once removed! I liked this book a lot. You can definitely tell which political party the author supports, but I was ok with that because I support the same one. I was a bit worried when the back said "futuristic" political thriller, but it takes place in 2020 and while policies and laws have changed, it's not like people are driving around in flying cars, so it's believable. I thought it ended too quickly, but I did enjoy the end.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of the book, that a right-wing administration might try to shut down a West Wing-type tv show which is pushing campaign finance reform, was very intriguing. Unfortunately, the implementation just didn't work. The plot was overly convoluted, the characters were poorly drawn, and the writing was uninspired.