It's All Straw
by Richard R. Sooley
Trafford Publishing


"All I have written seems like straw compared to what has been now revealed to me."

Why has America's president called Daniel Tobbit out of retirement—a political author whose memory has failed? Daniel is given a new drug, Memrestore, which improves his short-term memory. By day, he and his devoted wife, Judy, spend their time with the Brainbow team. Bee, Dixie, and Andy try to convince Daniel to revise his book, "Making America Even Greater," which has become the guide for Revivalists worldwide. By night, Daniel hallucinates due to Memrestore. He chats with an angel and sits in on twentieth-century presidential meetings. During the weekends, Daniel and Judy attend a Catholic church, but religious freedom mandates all faiths, including Muslim, share the pulpit.

In this new society, the Great One, not the president, decides what is best. This is not Marxist because multiple classes exist—humdrums, work-a-bees, government workers, and strawheads. When Daniel predicts that some will question who is behind the Oz-like curtain, a Brainbow member counters, "…what is wrong with a society that places everyone into a role where they are happiest?" Euthanasia and prison camps serve for the aged or dissident.

Will Daniel do a TV broadcast announcing revisions to his book? The Great One needs help to rally Revivalists and keep Muslim converts from tampering with society. But, isn't this the America that Daniel warned against years before?

The glossary of names is helpful, although further editing would have caught minor revision issues. As in a Huxley or Orwell novel, It's All Straw discusses the complex and troublesome issues of future society. However, lively interaction between Sooley's surprisingly likable characters relieves the tension. Proposed political reforms are: conclave voting systems, equitable representation in Congress, and a sales fair tax replacing the IRS. The author affirms the Founding Fathers' allowance for such reform.

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