Final Judgment [Hardcover]

Eliot Asinof (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

''Famous author, Kenneth Flear, becomes a creative writing professor at an eminent university. A brilliant college senior invites the professor to support her protest to prevent President George W. Bush from delivering the keynote at her commencement. After her self-sacrifice stops the president, Flear is commissioned to write a drop-in bestseller about the incident that ultimately asserts the insanity of the student. Attending Book Expo America in Washington D.C. in May 2006, the professor is featured at an author breakfast and panel discussion. With booksellers everywhere in foment over the book's conclusions, readers must make a final judgment for themselves.''

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this posthumous novel, Asinof (who died in June and is best known for Eight Men Out) presents a cartoonish indictment of Bush-era morals with a story narrated by Kenneth Flear, a novelist-turned-English professor at a northeastern university. Flear meets an impassioned student, Anne Miner, who wants to block the commencement speech of George W. Bush at the university. Flear, a middle-aged radical who had been mugged by time is now reluctant to jeopardize his chances for tenure and opts not to participate in Anne's protest. In the meantime, he is wined and dined by publishing bigwig Jonathan Purcell and finds himself attracted to Purcell's slick moneyed world. Flear's sense of who he wants to be is challenged when Anne interrupts commencement with an act that shocks the nation, and Purcell soon has Flear writing a smear book about Anne. What starts decently enough quickly devolves, and the narrative grows more absurd as it goes on; by the climax—at a taping of Good Morning America at Book Expo America featuring Barack Obama, Charlie Gibson, Bill O'Reilly, Bob Woodward and, of course, Flear—well, it's nearly impossible to suspend that much disbelief.(Oct.)
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Review

''Eliot Asinof's searing novel -- full of rage over what a president has done to our country -- creates a heroic young woman who becomes an American Joan of Arc. Final Judgment is one of the most accomplished works of his entire career.'' --Al Silverman, author of The Time of Their Lives: The Golden Age of Great American Book Publishers, Their Editors, and Authors

Eliot Asinof, who brilliantly exposed the rotten roots of the Black Sox Scandal in Eight Men Out, now focuses his scorching light on a corrupt and depraved American political and corporate system. In so doing, he has written a page-turning thriller that works on your mind and on your heart. --Ray Robinson, author of Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: Bunim & Bannigan Ltd (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933480246
• ISBN-13: 978-1933480244
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,746,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling & thought-provoking, August 28, 2008

By 

Shweta Johri (NYC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Final Judgment (Hardcover)

`Final Judgment' is the kind of book that simply sweeps you along -it tugs at your conscience, makes you smile, makes you sad, makes you think. This compelling book kept me up all night, and the second I finished it I couldn't wait to put it into the hands of a friend.
The author uses the plot to depict various American stances towards the Iraq war - from the blandly indifferent to the passionately concerned - and while he makes no bones about his own disillusionments with the government, he manages to make the story both enjoyable and thought-provoking.
The novel is set in a university town near Boston and the protagonist is Professor Kenneth Flear, whose charming, insightful voice - laced with cynicism and a dry sense of humor -beautifully offsets the earnestness and intensity of the haunting young heroine, a student called Anne Miner.
The book delves into the Flear family dynamics (especially the poignant father-son relationship) and also offers a behind-the-scenes peek into the workings of the publishing industry - from a title's initial commissioning to its publicity campaign. (Look out for some interesting guest appearances in the climax, including one from Barack Obama!) But more than anything else, this book is about how the paths of the two central characters cross, and how it changes both their lives irrevocably.
"Only dead men can tell the truth in this world," said Mark Twain of his anti-war short story `The War Prayer'. `Final Judgment', too, is a scathing indictment on war, and while its author is no more, I know that the truths he tells in this book will continue to live on in the minds of readers like me.