Radical Red

Dixon’s scathing debut collection skewers the hypocrisy and bad faith of American conservative politics from Nixon to Trump. The epigraph, a Mitt Romney quote (“I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America...”), sets the tone with its unintentional humor. Several of the entries juxtapose the words of early American leaders with the actions of modern-day conservative characters. “The Doctor’s Declaration,” for example, opens with Thomas Jefferson’s lament about slavery’s “unhappy influence” and his call for progress, sentiments notably absent from the strict constructionist viewpoints of the story’s main character, a born-again Christian candidate for the Senate who enthusiastically repeats the slogan, “It’s the 1770s all over again.” In “Unidentified Black Male,” a story about racist and reactionary police violence, Dixon traces a through line from Nixon’s dog whistling on race (“The brutal society that now flourishes in the core cities... will annex the affluent suburbs”) to Trump’s visions of “roving bands of wild criminals.” Elsewhere, “Spring Belle” mocks the notion of a perfect American family, envisioning a candy-colored Christian world in which repressed girls are submissive dolls subjected to rape. In “Conquistador,” a man identified only as “the citizen” wakes up in an alien environment and gradually realizes that he’s been arrested and detained for reasons he doesn’t understand. Throughout, Dixon’s barbs prompt laughter that catches in the reader’s throat. For those feeling enervated by the absurdity of today’s political theater, this satire offers a bracing tonic. (June)