Hicks went on to become a “Pioneer,” a big Bush fund-raiser, and was vice chairman of Clear Channel Communications, the largest owner of radio stations in the country and a big supporter of the Republican Right and George W. Bush in particular.
The point, in terms of the novel, is that the fictional scheme is not only plausible but has been done.
Would it be done with a religious group?
Of course. That’s what “faith-based initiatives” do. They take money that used to go to secular organizations and give it to Christian organizations, thereby rewarding the people who put the administration in office and sustaining them so they will be able to help in future elections.
Some people think that’s a great idea. Others do not.
Fiction makes its own demands.
Even a novel of ideas should only go on about those ideas long enough to show how they motivate the characters and generate the action.
Some readers may want less. Presumably they skim.
Other readers may want more, more detail, more explanation, more support and justification.
When it comes to religion, I have found that almost everyone has their own ideas, and many people want to express them.
We are fortunate to live in a time when the final page is not the end, and the dialogue can continue.
Readers who want more or who would like to share are invited to visit larrybeinhart.com
The website features a series of essays, the things that Professor MacLeod would have said had he been real and the things he would have written in The Book of Nathaniel had it been published. The site also includes a forum for an ongoing dialogue about religion, irreligion, faith, belief, and their intersections with politics, war, money, life, and death.
There are also videos, interviews, and reviews on the site.
Readers may e-mail the author at [email protected].
LARRY BEINHART is the author of Wag the Dog, which became the film with Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro. His novels—which include The Librarian, No One Rides for Free and Foreign Exchange—have won the Edgar, the Gold Dagger, and the Grand Prix de Literature Policier.
His articles and essays have appeared in the International Herald Tribune , Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Esquire, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Alternet.
His nonfiction books are Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin, and How To Write a Mystery.
He was a member of the Senior Common Room of Wadham College, Oxford, where he was a Raymond Chandler Fulbright Fellow in Detective and Crime Fiction Writing.
He currently resides in Woodstock, New York, with his wife and two children, where he is a part-time ski instructor on Hunter Mountain.
Copyright © 2008 by Larry Beinhart
New York, NY 10003
Paperback first published in 2009 by Nation Books
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Beinhart, Larry.
Salvation Boulevard / by Larry Beinhart. p. cm.
eISBN : 978-1-568-58674-8
I. Title.
PS3552.E425S25 2008
813’.54—dc22
2008007049
Salvation Boulevard Page 33