New from Amazon is a 31-page pamphlet Drumpf for President: A Scary Fable. It is available in both paperback and kindle editions. I actually wrote the forward and strongly recommend it. The pamphlet, the author calls it a book, is dedicated to “everyone who votes no!”
As I explain in the forward, I found the manuscript in an unnamed file on a thumb drive left by my office door. There was nothing else on the drive. I can only assume it was left for me to read and decide what to do with it. I did some online searching for its author R. Pieces and the only close connection I could draw was with myself. I sometimes use Rieces Pieces as a hip-hop rap name and for a twitter account.
The “fable” is a work of political satire. It falls within the tradition established in recent years by two of my favorite authors, Philip Roth, Our Gang (New York: Random House, 1971) and Calvin Trillin, Tepper Isn’t Going Out by (New York: Random House, 2001). After reading the manuscript I decided it stands up well and is a meaningful contribution to contemporary political discourse. Its brief and easy to read “chapters” discuss Drumpf’s decision to run for President, his positions on immigration, climate change, women in the workplace, Black Lives Matter, trade, and foreign policy, and his fear that space aliens, secretly hidden amongst us, are trying to steal the election.
Drumpf is a candidate trapped by his stereotypes and at times he uses colorful language, so some of the chapters are questionable for classroom use depending on grade level. The pamphlet was illustrated by my middle-school granddaughter and includes a really well done political cartoon with elephants jumping ship. None of the colorful words were new to her. If teachers decide to use the pamphlet or individual chapters in class, students can create their own images and political cartoons.
The pamphlet is clearly a work of fiction. In the preface, the unknown author writes that they do not know anyone named Duke Drumpf and to the best of his or her knowledge there is no Drumpf Tower in New York City or any place else. R. Pieces explains if “you think you recognize incidents and events from things you have seen on television or read about in newspapers and magazines, I have no control over your imagination.” The Preface ends with a quote from a “famous” but unnamed “American.” “Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing.”
Because of time pressure, the 2016 Presidential election is less than three months away, it is being distributed through Amazon. I hope you find it as scary and funny as I did.
Follow Alan Singer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReecesPieces8
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