Good lord. There’s very little else to mutter when thinking of this book. A swift, four day course of wheeling, dealing, and behind-the-scenes Washington Politics. And Washington people, too. It’s a mad dash to find out who wants to kill the president, why they want to do it, and whether or not we should let them get away with it.
The president in question is, obviously, a caricature of the current US President, wheeling, dealing (yes, I’ve said that again!), complaining, pussy-grabbing and childish. He’s surrounded by idiots – and that’s putting it mildly, for these are men who discuss yellow crescents to identify islamic followers, who use our protagonist like a combination sex-toy and squeeze her for intelligence – and it makes me sick to even think that this could be anywhere near the structure that the man running the free world today has built. There were times where I had to shut the book and take a few breaths before I could carry on – simply because some things hit too close to home.
Modern politics are a minefield for those who have no say – be they a minority race, a gender, or an orientation, and To Kill The President plays with this – it attacks everyone in one way, shape or form, it offends sensibilities deliberately, but not with the panache, or slick, quick wittedness that, say, The Book of Mormon does. This is vicious, this is fast paced, and as Bourne (a clever penname from a Guardian writer) constantly reiterates, this is Washington. You play with fire, you’ll get burned. And that’s something to remember throughout the book. Nobody is safe, nobody is sensible, nobody wins. Do they?
The general sense of dictates and shock that I felt throughout the novel was absolutely something that was deliberate, that was meant to happen, but dear god did it put me off reading the book. I don’t condone anything in the book – but I’m sure it happens and I’m sure the less I know, the better. Bourne plays with that distaste, however. He writes to piss you off, he writes to make you unhappy, so that you are reminded that this is not a person – someone out of control, someone who’s constant stream of abhorrent activities is just that – abhorrent. He gives you that reminder because of what we see on the news from day to day. He gives you that reminder because though the USA isn’t exactly ten months from enacting The Purge, it’s not something that is an alien, absent concept. Turn up the presidency two or three notches, and that’s what Bourne fears you might get.
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