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Silas Fox was an intelligent and hard-working young man who graduated from the University of Idaho. After a year of working for a nationally recognized company, he talked to his father about what he should do with his life. His father suggested the military. Silas joined the Marines and served for six years, saving a good deal of money during this time. He decided to relax for a few months after his discharge and spent that time in Seabeck, Washington. After sending money to an organization named Providers, their human resource director, Blake Tate, invited him to a ten-day seminar, all expenses paid, in Florida. Silas accepted and was soon enthralled by the company. Through professional diplomacy and education, the company was working to combat poverty around the globe. Due to his great academic record, public-speaking background, and Marine training, Silas was offered a job with a nice salary. Several others attended the seminar and were also offered jobs after showing themselves to be exemplary.
Silas was eventually partnered with Asia Dash. They quickly proved to be a great professional couple and began working on establishing a base of operations in Germany. From there, they would identify underemployed workers and help them get training for open jobs. Then they helped match them with employers and negotiate with employers for employees who had jobs but were underpaid. After three years of service with Providers, Silas and Asia left to pursue personal interests and hobbies. One of those was an interest in each other.
Initially, Lasswell’s book appears as if it may be putting together a team of exemplary people for missions like one might find in a Tom Clancy Rainbow Six title or The Kingsman comic series. After more development, the reader will find it is more a book about approaching poverty worldwide as a problem to be solved through high-level diplomacy, education, and an approach targeted to working within individual cities and identifying the needs of that city. It is a novel about team building and finding the drive to dedicate time and resources to battle world poverty. The book turns out to be much more tied to Muhammad Yunus’ Banker to the Poor than any action thriller. Additionally, it is the personal journey of the protagonist. Silas’ life is not always easy, and he experiences heartache. However, the author makes it clear that Silas lives a life where he is always looking forward with a belief in positive outcomes grounded in his Christian faith. As a result, his joys outweigh his sorrow, and there are more opportunities than failures.
Lasswell’s writing style consists of short, straightforward paragraphs with minimal description. When approaching a new subject—for example, Rwanda or September 11th—he often gives several educational paragraphs with the material presented in an encyclopedic format. Readers who don’t want to be bogged down by a lot of descriptive paragraphs and enjoy a more straightforward style will find that here. However, the overall effectiveness of the narrative would have been enhanced by some additional editing. Still, those looking for a feel-good story of people overcoming their challenges while devoting their time to developing a highly skilled team to battle poverty, and would like to have a “clean” read, will find all of that in Lasswell’s offering.