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The Overton Window by Glenn Beck
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Glenn Beck Edition: Hardcover Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2010-06-15 ISBN: 1439184305 Number of pages: 336 Publisher: Threshold Editions Product features: - ISBN13: 9781439184301
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Overton WindowBook Review: Quite Disappointing from a Beck Fan Summary: 2 Stars
Caution: This review is a bit lengthy and contains some mild spoilers.
I need to be up front about where I am with Glenn Beck and what I was bringing to his novel. I love Beck. I think he's a national treasure and nothing short of heroic when it comes to how he puts himself (perhaps literally) in the cross-hairs of people who sincerely think of themselves as the ruling elites and the rest of us as sheep. I'm a Beck "Insider" subscriber ("Extreme" no less). I listen to every hour of the show every week, and have done so for about three years. Sure, I cringe whenever Beck gets anywhere near the Bible (except for modern social justice - baptized Marxism - he's nailed that one) and the Dead Sea Scrolls (those are areas of my professional expertise), but I still love him and hope his audience and influence triples.
All that said, this wasn't a good read. I was quite disappointed. Why? Where do I start?
Let's go with the characters. I didn't care about any of them. What I mean there is that I didn't care if any of them lived or died. I had no emotional attachment to any of them, and that's just a huge flaw. Their behavior was also unrealistic to me. Noah Gardner (the lead male character) is captivated by Molly Ross (the female lead) just because of her looks (and we find later she resembled his mother). You might think that's normal, but Beck tried to inform us that this chick was different to Noah. Really? Give us more than a cute smile to make us understand that he's bound to her in the span of two days without knowing anything about her except she helps run a tea party. And when he's betrayed by Molly, he's flummoxed for less than a day and then it's all forgotten. Just not a believable response. There is no crafting of any emotional bond between them that can help us see ourselves here. About halfway through I just didn't care if any of them survived so long as I did.
Not only were the hero and heroine not memorable, but neither was the villain. Another devastating flaw in a thriller. Sure, Arthur Gardner was despicable, but there was nothing in here that made me want him to die. There was nothing about him that transcended any other snobbish thug. A classic villain is someone you can't get out of your head. Someone like Heath Ledger's Joker (you're glad he isn't real). But part of the villain problem was due to Beck's failure to bind me emotionally to Noah or Molly. I didn't care.
Moving on to the plot. There was nothing inventive here. I might feel this way since I have heard so much of Beck's content over the years and read some of the academic material he recommends. There wasn't a single surprise that would take a regular listener beyond either Beck's radio or TV show. But even for people who aren't regulars, I wondered what was new here. Terrorist plot? Seen that before. Rogue nuclear weapon? Ditto. Guys who choose death to foil a plot? Noble, but not new. In an age where there are so many heady thrillers and crime dramas with multiple twists and turns that keep you turning pages, this was very flat. Beck's "Crime, Inc." TV sessions were more enthralling because of its intricacies. There was nothing here that made me check earlier chapters to make sure I was following. I don't read much fiction, but when I do I want it to make me think. I want the book to make *me* want to try and think ahead, to noodle what might happen and what might the other trajectories be--and then to take them all away from me and give me something I couldn't anticipate unless I'd practically diagrammed all the sentences and could hear the voice inflection of voiceless words on a page. None of that here. Sure, you might say that thrillers are about action (very little of that, too) not thinking. You're supposed to suspend your brain and enjoy the ride. I disagree. The best thrillers are like the movies ("The Prestige") that you have to watch again as soon as they're done because you want to see how you could have missed the climax. You rehearse the bread crumbs in your mind left by the author or filmmaker and just *know* you missed something crucial that, looking back, was hidden in plain sight. This experience was pretty much the antithesis of that experience.
There were also points of the plot that just weren't coherent. There was no real rebuttal by Molly Ross or her mother to Arthur Gardner's interpretation of how and why Molly set up Noah the way she did. No explanation, no suggestion in subsequent dialogue that would help us reframe the events and think "You're wrong, Arthur, you arrogant SOP ("son of a progressive")!" What we're given is Noah finding Molly's little diary with quotes from Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. Oh, that explains her behavior perfectly. His portrayal of the tea party movement also struck me as somewhat incongruent with his TV and radio message. For sure (and I know this since I listen to him) Beck wanted all parts of the tea party constituency represented. But I was expecting the part we were supposed to be rooting for a little more upright. But to be fair, I think his goal was to sort of recreate a "sons of Liberty" feel for us -- but that also means that the message is that violent revolution *may* be necessary, something Beck repeatedly diverts listeners from on TV and radio. Again, it didn't seem congruent.
In hindsight I should have known better after reading the blurbs on the back of the book. Two names that would normally turn me away from reading a book were there. James Rollins? His novel "Subterranean" is still the only novel I can think of that I just put down halfway through. The book was about a hollow-earth civilization. The job if a thriller writer in a book like that is to take an outlandish but fascinating idea and (almost) convince us that it could really be possible, not to make it dumber as the story goes on, and make us want to shield the cover from our friends and acquaintances. Nelson DeMille? This is the guy who gushed on the back cover of The DaVinci Code about how smart Dan Brown was. Jesus bloodline mythology is an interest of mine and I already knew about the nonsense Brown was purveying as fact, so I read that novel. I saw a lot of content mistakes (and other sources put them over 100 - "Secrets of the Widow's Son"), but Brown at least had clever moments. But it was the idea of Jesus being married and having children that drove the book, not Brown's skill. Proof? Exhibit A: the chirping of the crickets in response to its sequel, The Lost Symbol.
Despite Rollins and DeMille being on the back, I still thought there might be something in The Overton Window that I hadn't gotten from listening to Beck. There wasn't. If you haven't heard Beck's content before now, I recommend the TV show and (especially) the radio show over this novel. You'll learn more, be inspired more, and, honestly, find them more entertaining.
Summary of The Overton WindowA plan to destroy America, a hundred years in the making, is about to be unleashed . . . can it be stopped? There is a powerful technique called the Overton Window that can shape our lives, our laws, and our future. It works by manipulating public perception so that ideas previously thought of as radical begin to seem acceptable over time. Move the Window and you change the debate. Change the debate and you change the country.
For Noah Gardner, a twentysomething public relations executive, it's safe to say that political theory is the furthest thing from his mind. Smart, single, handsome, and insulated from the world's problems by the wealth and power of his father, Noah is far more concerned about the future of his social life than the future of his country.
But all of that changes when Noah meets Molly Ross, a woman who is consumed by the knowledge that the America we know is about to be lost forever. She and her group of patriots have vowed to remember the past and fight for the future--but Noah, convinced they're just misguided conspiracy-theorists, isn't interested in lending his considerable skills to their cause.
And then the world changes.
An unprecedented attack on U.S. soil shakes the country to the core and puts into motion a frightening plan, decades in the making, to transform America and demonize all those who stand in the way. Amidst the chaos, many don't know the difference between conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact--or, more important, which side to fight for.
But for Noah, the choice is clear: Exposing the plan, and revealing the conspirators behind it, is the only way to save both the woman he loves and the individual freedoms he once took for granted.
After five back-to-back #1 New York Times bestsellers, national radio and Fox News television host Glenn Beck has delivered a ripped-from-the-headlines thriller that seamlessly weaves together American history, frightening facts about our present condition, and a heart-stopping plot. The Overton Window will educate, enlighten, and, most important, entertain--with twists and revelations no one will see coming.
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