FIRE IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

In Rogers’ political satire, after the two major political parties collapse, there is a mad dash to commandeer the White House and uncover a scandal that will oust the current president.

In a display of apathy-as-protest, American voters simply ignore a Congressional election, neglecting to vote in any meaningful number of representatives and forcing the rebranding of the two dominant political parties. In an event that comes to be known as “The Great Realignment,” Democrats and Republicans are rechristened Stalactites and Stalagmites, or “Tites” and “Mites” for short. Like so many other politicians, Senator Sheffield Belmond, a Stalactite from Minnesota, has his ambitious sights set on the Oval Office, but his “sincerity, sterling progressive credentials, legislative obscurity, and darn Midwestern likeability” just aren’t quite enough; President John Stafford, who belongs to neither party, is widely popular. Belmond hopes to find a scandal to unseat Stafford, as does Speaker of the House Jan Staffort, a trans woman who resents the president for having such a similar last name—a strangely plausible motivation in this politically astute novel by Rogers. Digging up dirt on the president turns out to be a daunting task since it appears that Stafford is “possibly the least corrupt president we’ve had in at least twenty years.” An opportunity arises, though, when United States Army Lt. Park-Raak, a man who loathes Stafford, finds “impeachment grade information” indicating that the president is involved in financial impropriety. Park-Raak shares the evidence with his girlfriend Elle Crafton, a reporter for the Washington Herald. At the heart of the potential scandal is “Pisanionium,” a recently discovered element that somehow has artificial intelligence properties built into it and is used to power Phycenook, the dominant social media website.

The author inventively creates an absurd political cosmos that is deliciously reminiscent of the real one, a considerable feat given Washington’s inclination to self-parody. The story can lag a bit—the plot is freighted with excessive attention to superfluously granular details. Still, Rogers concocts an alternative political universe realistic enough to be evocative of the contemporary scene while remaining profoundly and entertainingly ridiculous; one bill Staffort sponsors delinks federal legislation from the law of cause and effect, catalyzing comically ludicrous scientific and philosophical debates about its defensibility. And Belmond is a prolific poet—he’s written thousands of poems—including this slice of artless callowness: “An old fellow out of Nantucket / had a list: before he kicked the bucket, / He thought it’d be nifty / To visit all fifty / States, but developed melanoma, so had to adjust it.” Mercifully, the author avoids any heavy-handed political grandstanding or sermonizing—this is a work of humor, first and foremost, not a didactic polemic. The author is not interested in scoring cheap partisan points—his target is the whole of political culture. As a result, the novel should appeal to any reader in search of a well-executed political farce that offends widely and equally. This is an intelligently conceived work, and most enjoyable.

A genuinely funny sendup of contemporary American politics.