Wednesday, June 20, 2012

True Believers-Kurt Andersen

True Believers


Kurt Andersen

Harper, Jul 10 2012, $26.99

ISBN 9781400067206



Law professor Karen Hollander decides not to go through the vetting process for a Supreme Court nomination as she fears that will allow the Republicans to destroy Obama if they could go after him for a minor acquaintance with a radical. She writes her memoirs which contains bombs that she hid for four decades once she gathers all the information about 1968.



In the 1960s in the Chicago area, she and her two best friends (Alex Macallister III, and Chuck Levy) used to role play as James Bond. By 1968, the trio became radicals. Though she knows she can take what she knows most likely to the grave, Karen plans to reveal the incident that shaped her life over forty years ago once she learns the missing pieces that until recently she chose ignorance as bliss.



This is a fascinating thriller that compares the radicalization of the middle and upper classes in the 1960s to the seemingly complacent acceptance of Big Brother since 9/11. Character driven by mostly Karen who tells her story, readers will appreciate her 1960s activism vs. her granddaughter’s “Occupied” activism and the role of intelligence that slices through both.



Harriet Klausner



1 comment:

Unknown said...

If you only have time to watch one video interview with Kurt Andersen this year, make it this one. Funny and more than a little revealing, the author of True Believers, host of NPR's Studio 360 and co-founder of Spy magazine easily makes for one of the best Mr. Media shows of 2012. And get a load of what he says about Dave Eggers, Donald Trump and that other 360 guy, Anderson Cooper! http://www.mrmedia.com/2012/07/just-another-true-believer-spying-on-kurt-andersen-2012-video-interview/