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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A manifesto perhaps, but a great story, too, September 3, 2008
(This review originally appeared at Oxyfication [DOT] net)
The inherent danger with a politically grounded novel is the potential to read the book as an author's manifesto. There is a desire for the reader to take a Rhetorical Critic's stance on the text and interpret every politically-backed statement as the author's personal belief. And with this danger comes the potential to polarize audiences. Joey Goebel's third novel, Commonwealth, is weighed by this dynamic, however he has the storytelling chops to move beyond treatise territory and deliver a great story, helped, not hindered, by the political setting.
Commonwealth follows the Mapother family black sheep, "Blue Gene" Eugene, as he slowly morphs from passive flea marketer and Wal-Mart enthusiast to aggressive philanthropist with communist leanings. Blue Gene, willing dissident in regards to his family's unfathomable fortune, adopts a working class lifestyle far removed from his wealthy family. This tension is only heightened by his brother, John Hurstbourne Mapother's, campaign for a congressional seat. As the novel progresses, pandering for votes becomes not-to-far removed from pandering for familial affection, which forces the Mapother family into devastating conflict.
Though Blue Gene is mostly a caricature of the "red neck" conservative right, much of the conflict deals with the narrator's unexpected struggle with these "red state" ideals as seeded by the novel's love interest, the elfin-faced Jackie Stepchild, female lead of the anti-establishment punk band Uncle Sam's Finger. Jackie represents a caricature of her own, the Left extremist, anti-capitalist aggravator, and the juxtaposition of the two characters adds to the Rhetorical Critic's argument that Goebel himself may be attempting to find his place between Left and Right just as Blue Gene questions his own stance between these extremes. Much of the political points and counterpoints within the novel are so well articulated that it becomes hard to distance the author from the material. And I argue that this is exactly the point of the novel.
Beyond the politics of Commonwealth is a story very much grounded in the coming of age tradition. Blue Gene, always a proto-male, in love with monster trucks and professional wrestling, falls for Jackie in a way that might best be described as a simple crush. Though the relationship elevates as the novel progresses, Blue Gene has difficultly in admitting to his attraction, instead playing the "man's man" role after their first extended conversation by commenting that "he hadn't even gotten a good look at [her] breasts" [pg. 174].
Goebel's previous novels are decidedly absent of politics, making Commonwealth quite the departure. And more so perhaps, an evolution. Where The Anomalies deals with a ragtag group of outcasts learning to accept their place in society, and Torture the Artist explores the importance of creation on a conceptual level, Commonwealth combines the two models to examine how seemingly radical views may be implemented in order to create a society properly disposed toward community rather than toward the individual.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dynamic Characters..., August 21, 2008
In my opinion this book has it all: phenomenally written, deep, moving story, important, relevant themes insightfully rendered and humor and sadness that often hit at the same time. The book haunted me for days once I closed its last page, which is always the mark of a great piece of art.
The most important part of this book is how thoughtful it is. I think in a nation politically polarized it's easy for us to write the other side off as imbeciles, to lose touch that the opposition are actually our fellow citizens, our neighbors, our fellow human beings. Goebel could have easily taken the superficial road and made the right-wingers in this novel out to be morons and yahoos and made us all guffaw wildly at their expense. But instead he treated his subjects with thoughtfulness and complexity and empathy and yet still managed to make us laugh.
I can personally work myself up to pure hatred when I think about republican politics, I can even at rare times feel dehumanizing to our poorest set who seemingly vote against their own economic interests in the name of "moral issues", but Commonwealth makes you feel more accepting of the people behind the political views. The author makes you feel like you could even go share a beer with a right winger and it's going to be okay. You'll be able to connect with them as people. When you leave the novel you have a sympathetic understanding of all the characters and all their motivations... Goebel shines a big light into why they are the way they are and you come to understand that they're not bad people at all.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A satirical socio-political novel, both comic and cogent, August 3, 2008
Joey Goebel has written a smart, snappy tale reminiscent of John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces and the works of Kurt Vonnegut.
It's 1973 in Bashford, Commonwealth County, somewhere in the middle of America. The protagonist, Eugene Dewitt "Blue Gene" Mapother, 27, is an ex-Wal-Mart employee who now sells toys at a flea market.
Blue Gene lives in a trailer, wears a mullet, smokes Parliaments, and loves wrestling matches and monster-truck rallies.
He's also filthy rich, or will be at 30, when he will inherit his share of the family fortune. His draconian father, Henry, is CEO of of Westway International, a global tobacco superpower.
Blue Gene's brother, John Hursthorne Mapother, 40, is running for Congress and believes his black-sheep brother, a good ol' boy with populist appeal, can help his campaign by drawing in the simple folk--hayseeds, rednecks, and white trash--all the alleged underlings of "lesser pedigree."
Blue Gene's mother, Elizabeth, is a religious nut who has recurring dreams of John's destiny as forerunner of the Messiah. John, she believes, will help inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth. It soon becomes apparent that basing one's politics on apocalpytic prophecy is a dubious and dangerous enterprise.
Seeking respite from a dysfunctional family spiraling out of control, Blue Gene is attracted to Jackie "Stepchild" Ripplemeyer, a skinny punk-rocker pacifist who challenges Blue Gene's naive patriotism. And lurking in the shadows is Josh Balsam, a dangerous hawk with serious mental problems and a "terrorist" agenda.
The characters in this novel are multi-dimensional. We get caught up in this fully developed story, as if following the adventures of real-life people. And we are persuaded once again that the sins of one generation are visited upon the next.
This satirical, socio-political novel is a morality tale illustrating that "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil," as the greedy rich want more, more, more, without regard for the welfare of those less fortunate. It's tragi-comedy at its best.
MIdway through Commonwealth, a startling family secret is revealed, but it would be criminal for a reviewer to spoil the reader's surprise.
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