One Nation, Under God

ISBN: 0727866230

Author: Graff, Keir

Condition: New

Product Description For God and country or simply for God? - The United States is holding an election, and control of the country may be determined by a single seat in the Buckle of the Bible Belt: Tulsa, Oklahoma . . . In Tulsa, recovering methamphetamine addict Seth Stevens is trying to hold his fragile life together. But his decision to campaign for the church-supported candidate forces him to answer an age-old question: what do you do when following your faith means breaking the law? From Publishers Weekly A simplistic plot line and unsophisticated characterization undermine the message of this contemporary political thriller from Graff (My Fellow Americans). After performing with Crucifer, a satanic band, recovering drug addict Seth Stevens has found a more spiritual outlet for his musical gifts with the Christian band, Salvation, in Tulsa, Okla. When a lone Mormon missionary goes missing after crossing Terry Kinsman, a member of Salvation and a youth pastor in the Free Church of God's Slaves, Stevens begins to question his new life. He's gradually drawn into the church's covert political wing by Kinsman, who's determined to defeat a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate by any means necessary. While Stevens manages to overcome the lure of his former friends from Crucifer, disentangling himself from the radicals involved in his church proves more of a challenge. A routine romantic subplot doesn't help this unconvincing fictional effort to paint the extreme religious right as a major threat.Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist (Editors note: It is Booklist policy that a book written or edited by a staff editor receive a brief descriptive announcement rather than a full review.) In his paranoid thriller My Fellow Americans (2007), Graff wrote about a Lebanese-American Chicagoan whose life becomes terrifying after hes detained as a suspected terrorist. In One Nation, under God, Graff again sets world politics on a local stage. Its election time, and control of the country may come down to a hotly contested Senate seat in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where recovering meth addict and born-again Christian Seth Stevens is attempting to swap one lifestyle for another. But his decision to campaign for the church-supported candidate has unexpected consequences, and he soon finds himself forced to answer an age-old question: What do you do when following your faith means breaking the law? As good intentions lead to dirty tricks-and a frightening revelation of one groups plan to take over the country-Seth learns that the Heartland isnt so far from the halls of power. --Bill Ott