I'm going to ...

Rating: ☆☆☆

Title: Checkpoint

Author: Nicholson Baker

Genre: Political Fiction

Read: 9th July 2005




Comments: We all know you can't say "I'm going to kill the President", because the moment you do, an armed flock of Secret Service will descend on you and wing you away to God only knows where, but that's just what Baker does in this book.

Well not exactly... Checkpoint is written as a dialogue between two friends: Jay and Ben. Both are enraged by Bush's callousness and mishandling of Iraq, but Jay has decided to take things into his own hands. He's hatched a plan to assasinate G.W.B. and it's up to Ben to talk him out of it. It's a thin sliver of a book, packed from cover to cover with emotion; sadness, frustration, but mostly the rage of good people who feel helpless to do anything about the current political morass.

I finished it in one sitting and was left hopping mad. It's a departure from Baker's usual detailed and introspective style, but it's worth giving it a read. (You may need to pick up something a bit more uplifting for your next book though, if you do.)

Quote: "...this guy [G.W. Bush] is beyond the beyond.”

Checkpoint