Title: An Apprentice Dictator in the White House
Author: Abner Clerveaux
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-1947620438
Pages: 150
Genre: Fiction / Satire / Thriller
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Hollywood Book Review
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction and sometimes it isn’t. When politics is involved, it’s often even more difficult to know what is real and what is not. An Apprentice Dictator in the White House by author Abner Clerveaux introduces some behavior and situations which most people would say are simply not believable. But consider this; the protagonist of this novel is a charming southern governor who becomes president and seems unable to keep his libido in check. Does that not sound eerily reminiscent of William Jefferson Clinton? Later on in the novel, the president decides to take some steps that are definitely beyond his powers granted by the constitution. Does that not sound a bit like both Barak Obama and Donald Trump? And speaking of the latter, who would ever have believed a celebrity could have been elevated to the presidency anyhow? So, perhaps the fictional goings-on in this book are not as beyond belief as one might think.
John Redlight is the governor who winds up being elected President of the United States. Why? Well, it seems that men find him trustworthy and women find him extremely attractive. Eventually, even the different political parties who can’t seem to agree on anything come to believe he just might be a really top notch President. Of course, getting elected to the highest office in the land, and becoming arguably the world’s most important person, is still not quite enough for Redlight. His sexual desires seem to override his duties to his wife and to his job. When it looks as if the other branches of government are going to publicize his extra curricular activities, hire a special prosecutor to investigate him, and then perhaps actually impeach him, he decides the best way to deal with it all is to disband Congress and gut the United States Supreme Court. Then he puts in his own special brand of martial law and before you know it armed troops are on the streets in Washington D.C.
To delve further into the plot would spoil additional surprises that are in store for the reader. Surely however, one must ask whether or not America will stand for its Constitution being run roughshod over. How about the rest of the world? Do they simply sit by and let the planet’s most successful democracy shatter in front of their eyes? Then there’s the question about what, if anything, can be done about this dictatorial presidency.
An involving plot isn’t the only thing this author has on his mind. He’s also interested in having readers examine the social and political aspects of such grievous acts as mentioned above. However, this melding of narrative and philosophy sometimes presents comprehension speed bumps, particularly when grammar, syntax, and tense occasionally become muddled. But be that as it may, a respect for America’s governing principals still shines through this novel about the perils of trading rights and privileges for popularity. Abner Clerveaux has created a springboard for thinking people to view what is going on nowadays as being something to keep in mind from the pages of An Apprentice Dictator in the White House.