Review: In ‘The Innocent Have Nothing to Fear,’ the Future Looks Like Now
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Version 0 of 1. Way back in 1961, Philip Roth observed that the American writer in the middle of the 20th century “has his hands full in trying to understand, and then describe, and then make credible much of the American reality.” “It stupefies, it sickens, it infuriates,” he wrote, “and finally it is even a kind of embarrassment to one’s own meager imagination. The actuality is continually outdoing our talents, and the culture tosses up figures almost daily that are the envy of any novelist.” Since Mr. Roth wrote those words, the American reality has only become more surreal, with the current presidential campaign devolving into a spectacle that writers have described as a circus, a parody, a farcical parable about the rise of a fascistic leader, and the most depressing reality show ever. This is the challenge facing the author and political consultant Stuart Stevens in his new novel, “The Innocent Have Nothing to Fear,” a dark satire that purports to give an inside look at a presidential campaign in the near future, as the country reels from an economic tsunami (triggered by a right-wing coup in China) and the Republican Party is on the verge on implosion. Mr. Stevens, a veteran of the George W. Bush and Mitt Romney campaigns, brings a full arsenal of gifts to this enterprise: humor, tactile prose and an insider’s knowledge of the hardball tactics employed on the campaign trail. His hero, one J. D. Callahan, shares his own Southern upbringing and love of bicycle racing, and the Republican tactician Lee Atwater’s passion for guitar playing. The problem is that Mr. Stevens’s Donald Trump-like villain and a Hillary Clinton-like rival pale next to their real life counterparts: they are paper-doll cutouts, not a fraction as colorful or compelling as the politicians who helped inspire them. The Trump-ian Armstrong George (the name clearly filched from George Armstrong Custer, famous for his “last stand” at the Battle of the Little Bighorn) is the fire-breathing governor of Colorado, calling for harsh new immigration and anti-terrorist measures. He’s a big-mouthed bully who channels his rabid fans’ ugliest emotions of anger and fear while promising to “reignite the torch of American genius and greatness.” Mr. Stevens’s narrator, J. D., calls Armstrong George a “fascist thug” and a “dangerous lunatic” — sentiments that echo the author’s own disgust with Mr. Trump, whom he has compared to the segregationist George Wallace and accused of inciting violence. At the same time, Armstrong George — who remains largely offstage in this novel — lacks the attention-grabbing outrageousness and impulsive bombast of the real-life Donald J. Trump. As for Hilda Smith, the Hillary-lite character in this novel, she’s the centrist vice president running against Armstrong George for the G.O.P. nomination — described in pallid terms as a blond, aging “ice queen,” disliked — even hated — by many, while inspiring the blind devotion of her closest aides. She remains oddly generic, with little of the sort of political baggage carried by Hillary Clinton (Benghazi, State Department emails, Whitewater, etc.) or her complicated back story as a first lady with a charismatic and philandering husband. Hilda’s trouble is that she represents the establishment in an anti-establishment year — and it’s J. D.’s job to help her win the Republican nomination, despite Armstrong George’s surging popularity. Two developments hugely complicate J. D.’s mission. The explosion of several small bombs — in New Orleans, near the convention site — scares the delegates, making them more susceptible than ever to Armstrong George’s take-no-prisoners, fire-breathing scaremongering. And just when he’s supposed to be rounding up delegates for Hilda, J. D. finds himself being sucked into a family melodrama involving his two wayward brothers: Paul, a college football star who now hopes to get into politics, despite having served a stint in prison for gambling; and Tyler, a strip club boss, with lots of old skinhead friends, who may or may not know something about the New Orleans bombings. By far the most interesting parts of this novel are the behind-the-scenes accounts of the tactical and strategic maneuvering of political operatives faced with a contested convention — something political addicts appear to have been deprived of in real life. As his 1989 book “Malaria Dreams” (a travel book masquerading as a comic novel or vice versa) demonstrated, Mr. Stevens is a terrific raconteur — funny, observant and highly entertaining. But in the case of this novel, his imagination fails to rival the high-stakes, high-wire drama tossed up by real life, and playing out in news coverage every day. |