Mizner (Political Animal
) goes micro in his second novel, encapsulating sometimes awkwardly the current American political landscape in a dying Ohio steel town's school board election. Hartsburg used to be a bellwether community that voted correctly on every presidential candidate, but a conservative shift shattered the town's decades-long streak of infallibly picking the winner in 1992. Long frustrated with the "thumpers," local newspaper columnist and failed Hollywood screenwriter Wallace Cormier decides he has to do something after his beloved main street cinema is turned into a church. His plan? To run for the school board against Bevy Baer, a churchgoing mother of five who wants to push an agenda of creationism and zero tolerance. Both candidates get help from veteran political consultants, and things get ugly: rumors circulate about Wallace's mother's sexual activity, and a scandalous film surfaces that reveals a lot about Bevy that she's been trying to hide. While Mizner overuses generalizations and stereotypes about liberals and conservatives, the thin secondary characters are countered by an earnest depiction of the candidates' humanity and depth of conviction. The novel ends up being much more sad than funny, more straight that satirical, and it offers an apt examination of divides that aren't as cut and dried as red vs. blue. (Aug.)
