Terror Nation: ...notes from the perimeter [Paperback]

Mike Palecek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2006

A novel by Mike Palecek - Terror Nation tells the story of a small-town sports writer who turns his interest to writing letters to the editor after he has retired from the paper. He was once a Reagan Republican but after his wife died he began to hear her voice, perhaps a little stronger than when she was around. He turns his politics 180 degrees. His family - or is it the government - puts him in the local insane asylum not three blocks from his home. What is he to do?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mike Palecek started his writing career in 1974 by sending a letter to the editor of the Norfolk [Nebr.] Daily News. He has been to prison, written for small newspapers and run for Congress. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Mainstay Press (April 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977459055
• ISBN-13: 978-0977459056
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,402,926 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another hard-hitting tale of betrayal and corruption, June 18, 2006

By 

Charles W. Gregory "Reviewer-Editor-Bookseller" (FORT LAUDERDALE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Terror Nation: ...notes from the perimeter (Paperback)

Mike Palecek just doesn't seem to run out of heartrending stories about small-town America. His heroes feel like people we've known, or at least been around, all our lives. They're not the successful businessmen or politicians we might envy on some level for their material wealth, nor are they likely to be street people. They are typical Americans who've worked all their lives to keep up with those around them. they've always wanted to belong. They've been proud of their lives, their kids, their accomplishments and their America.

Charlie Johnson was like that. When "Terror Nation" first looks at him, he's sitting in his home, staring out the window. An autographed photo of Ronald Reagan is gazing right back at him. He's comtemplating the recent events in his life, the ones that have put him where he is--waiting for his daughter to pick him up and take him to the local loony bin for 'testing'. Testing. Right.

Who thinks Charlie is crazy? His family? His neighbors? The government? Or do they just dislike that his open criticism of the accepted and popular political opinions? Is Charlie's voice of dissent just a little too inconvenient?

Charlie's story is told against a backdrop of an America that has probably progressed a little further down the road to Amerika. There are hotbeds of rebel activity where radical college students are fighting the private armies of the rich and powerful. None of it gets in the papers; perhaps it is really going on today and we just don't know. The Red Sox and White Sox in real life are baseball teams, not opponents in guerrilla warfare. Aren't they?

What happens in this book to Charlie and his family could happen to anyone who cares in America today. What happens is a warning for all of us that it is dangerous to fight the status quo. What happens is a challenge to stand up against oppression and bigotry and lies. What happens is an indictment of inaction even as it warns us that action can get us killed.

This is an important book that deserves to be read. Mike Palecek is one of our finest political writers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hometown Hero in the Cuckoo's Nest, August 21, 2006

By 

Stewart Bradley "aggressive progressive" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Terror Nation: ...notes from the perimeter (Paperback)

Charles Johnson is a man unaware of the trouble he is in.
He thought that, in America, he has the right to voice his
opinion when he sees corruption and injustice in the
government. But in George W. Bush's America the rules
have changed and what was once considered our patriotic
duty is now grounds for suspicion, imprisonment, or worse.

What hasn't changed is author Mike Palecek's talent for
weaving fact and fiction together into thought provoking
stories. "Terror Nation" is Palecek's first release from
Mainstay Press, a new publisher specializing in political
and social themed books. Mainstay is the ideal publisher
for Palecek who, besides writing many other brilliant
politically oriented books, has run for Congress and was
once arrested for anti-war protesting.

"Terror Nation" follows Charles Johnson, a retired sports
writer living in small town Iowa. Believing he has been
abandoned by his wife and children, Charles spends his time
writing letters to his local paper and public officials critical
of government policy. When his family suggests he visit a
mental hospital for observation, Charles begins to question
his own sanity and reluctantly admits himself.

After a slow start where every part of his check in is
described in painstaking detail, the plot begins to pick up
when Charles meets a beautiful and mysterious young woman,
Lori Gabrielli. Lori warns Charles that he is not there merely
for observation but is a victim of a government program
called "Hometown Hero" where political dissidents are
reported by family and friends, demonized by local media, and
are locked away to prevent their sanity from spreading.

Charles is skeptical of Lori's conspiracy theory and puts it
to the test by wandering back home where he meets up with
his son, Ronny. But the reunion is cut short as a swarm of
law enforcement personnel descend on the house searching for
the escaped lunatic.

Meanwhile a quiet war is being fought across the midwest
as groups of college educated rebels called the "White Sox"
are engaged in bloody combat with government backed
mercenaries called the "Red Sox". For the White Sox, Charles
Johnson's writings are an inspiration and they send a small
team on a mission to rescue Charles from his captors.

I don't want to give away any more of the story but there
are a quite a few surprise twists and turns that build to an
intense confrontation. True to Palecek's style of dark irony
the ending is both sad yet oddly hopeful.

While some may consider the premise of the book to be a
bit paranoid I think the book serves well as a warning of
what may happen if Americans continue to allow their
leaders overstep the limits of their power. One must
wonder how far away a program like "Hometown Hero" is
from becoming a reality, but as long as Mike Palecek
continues writing great books I remain optimistic that
freedom can prevail.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frightening, exhilarating, brave, August 30, 2006

By 

Linda Obrien (Takoma Park, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Terror Nation: ...notes from the perimeter (Paperback)

"We are lost and not even searching. We have not even the sense to know there is a precipice nearby, just cattle out wandering wherever the grass takes us." So wrote protagonist Charles Johnson to a friend in Terror Nation, a novel that's woven right into today's reality: George W. Bush is president, 9/11 "changed everything," the administration orders secret imprisonments, and a mostly passive populace just wants to get by.

But in Johnson's America, clusters of armed resistance have broken out (and a counter-resistance), while those who practice non-violent dissent risk being turned in by frightened citizens anxious to contribute to "Operation Hometown Heroes." It's an America, in other words, just a few inches down the road from our own, and Johnson finds himself locked incommunicado in a mental asylum ward for speaking inconvenient truths in letters to the editor.

Author Mike Palacek's naturalistic style places the reader in Charles Johnson's skin. It's skin that is having trouble enough just dealing with getting older and relishes the simple comfort of a familiar afghan and a reclining chair--even when Johnson stumbles across them in the dark of an asylum ward in the middle of the night. Johnson will remind you of people you know--your father, brother, yourself--an ordinary, middle-aged guy in Iowa just trying to live his life decently and with a bit of courage. At the same time, Palacek alternates the narrative voice so that sometimes we are within Johnson's skin in first person "I" and at other times we watch him from the outside, in third-person narration. It's a technique that is initially disorienting, but perhaps that's the idea. Johnson has been stripped of the power of "I," of his ability to control much of anything in his environment. What is left is what a frightened and/or power-mad world believes him to be, based solely on what he appears to be.

I kept looking up from this book thinking, "We're almost there, at Terror Nation." The truly inspired thing Palacek has done is to replace one of the invisible "them" with a believable one of "us," and the result is like slow shock treatment. It's also strangely exhilarating. Maybe confronting the darkness (from a safe distance) has that effect.

Beyond that, Terror Nation is an enjoyable read. Dark as the subject matter can be, the reader walks through the labyrinth with good company--not only Johnson's, but that of other dissidents throughout time in quotations that begin many of the chapters.

Frightening, thought-provoking, brave, and well worth reading now, while there are still a few inches between us and the possible darkness up the road Palacek presents.