Pay Severance or Die: A Novel of Satire

The pseudonymous author calls this ""a novel of satire,"" but it approaches slapstick, most of it a sloppy, foul-mouthed attack on Bill Clinton. Retired Army Col. Jack Davis, aided by some old comrades in arms, cooks up a plan to kill bad (liberal) guys until the federal government pays $50 million in ransom. The brave band massacres a U.S. Senator, her husband and aides, as well as two gay members of the military. Emboldened, they go on to kill gun-control advocates, a liberal Congressman and--a big target--a media cabal just as it's assigning ""news broadcasters to Republican candidates"" to ""willfully and deceitfully broadcast false information."" Unreality rules from the start. The murdered senator is a California Democrat, for example, so politically literate readers will wonder why she would only see gay activists in a ""private and secret meeting."" Other readers may wonder why another seasoned Senator would make love to his secretary in an office fully visible from the hotel across the street. The language tries for vitriol: Clinton is ""white trash,"" and the media are ""snakes... their tongues flapping as they slithered along,"" but the effect is all empty bravado. Erickson's charmless language carries all the firepower of a popgun, but at least we get a new epithet from the fringe: ""centralists"" who ""don't give a shit if they wreck the country."" (Dec.)