GHOST DANCE....by Ian R
Mitchell..........THE FIRST TRUMPLAND POLITICAL THRILLER.......
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2017
It is January 2017. Donald Trump has just assumed the US presidency and
become the world's most powerful man. The world is in shock – and fear, as it
watches the jubilation this event causes over large parts of the United States.
Two friends set out on a road trip through the American West, just
subsequent to the inauguration of Trump. One is Thomas, a Scottish freelance
journalist familiar with the area, who is looking for copy for newspaper
articles from the trip. The other is Louis, an American, a recently-divorced
academic who has lived in Europe for over 20 years, and, stunned by the
election result, wants to “find America” - and seek amorous adventures.
The journey starts in El Paso where “No-one goes on vacation” and takes
them on an Odyssey through the wilds of West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah
and Montana. They encounter the death agonies of rural and small town America
in abandoned mining towns and witness agricultural decay, in an area unknown –
and often despised - by many Americans. This is the heart of Trumpland, the
boondocks fly-over states of ill-educated ill-informed and very angry people
who are both witnessing and experiencing at first hand the Decline of the
American Empire. The two friends' encounters with Trump's constituency are
mitigated by meetings with the isolated and contrasting communities of ageing
hippie drop outs, Native Americans, Hispanics and Mormons who also inhabit
these little-known regions.
Life as ever in the USA imitates art, and an unwelcome incident on the
Mexican border causes the friends to totally change their travel plans; then
the road trip becomes a road flight that blows their odyssey totally off course
and takes them to destinations unforeseen,
and a journey that will change both their lives in unexpected
directions. Set in the template of the “far out west” road novel Ghost Dance
is a serious work of political fiction, a state of the nation narrative, which
is based on the author's thorough grounding of the history, scenery, culture
and social structures of the US West. The novel illustrates in chilling fashion
both the anger and hate which brought Trump to power, and the frightening
portents this triumph carries for America and the rest of world, though the
experience of two men grappling with forces at the limits of their comprehension,
and beyond the limits of their control.
IAN R MITCHELL IS THE AUTHOR OF THE
ACCLAIMED TRAVEL BOOK, ENCOUNTERS IN THE
AMERICAN MOUNTAIN WEST AND OF THE COLD
WAR POLITICAL THRILLER WINTER IN BERLIN.
GHOST DANCE IS PUBLISHED BY THE STOBCROSS
PRESS AND IS AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK OR AS A PRINT ON DEMAND DOWNLOAD FROM
AMAZON.
REVIEW COPIES CAN BE REQUESTED FROM STOBCROSS PRESS; contact
Related post on this blog: Notes from the Frontier of an Empire in Decline
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