Unafraid: A Novel of the Possible [Paperback]

Jeff Golden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2008

Two dates burn fiercely in the memory of millions of Americans: November 22, 1963 and September 11, 2001. These two tragedies bracket "Unafraid," a story grounded in a simple question: what if the fatal bullet fired on that sunny Dallas afternoon had veered three inches off target?"Unafraid" lays out a compelling answer, rich with the public adventures and private dramas of 20th Century icons--J. Edgar Hoover, Martin Luther King, Fidel Castro, Golda Meir, the Beatles--played out on a transformed world stage. At the center of this parallel history is a leader who blows the sides out of conventional politics with a simple belief: a primary reason that idealistic goals are "impossible" to achieve is that we needlessly decide that they're impossible to achieve.With a tiny imaginary spin of history's wheel, "Unafraid" opens the gates to an America of realistic hope and possibility.

Editorial Reviews

Review

''What an exciting, clever, imaginative book! And more, what an insightful, important one. This is the Great Read you've been looking for.'' --Neale Donald Walsch, author of the bestselling Conversations with God series

''Unafraid is a different kind of novel. While its story captivated me, its exploration of the possible was lifting my hopes for America and the world. This is a fine and important book.'' --Mark Gerzon, author of Leading through Conflict --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

About the Author

Jeff Golden's migration from the halls of Harvard to the backwoods of Oregon was chronicled in the book "Watermelon Summer." He has built homes, farmed, logged, guided river adventures and served as a County Commissioner, mediator, columnist and public broadcasting producer and talk show host.Other books include "As If We Were Grownups" and "Forest Blood."

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Hellgate Press; 1 edition (December 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155571658X
• ISBN-13: 978-1555716585
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,195,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Profile in Courage, April 17, 2008

By 

Jack Seybold (Ashland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: UNAFRAID: A Novel of the Possible (Paperback)

Jeff Golden's striking new novel Unafraid carries the theme of his As If We Were Grownups, a political primer published during the 2004 campaign, into fiction. Grownups offers ten imagined political speeches -- speeches that would require vision and courage that seem to be absent from contemporary political life. Convincing a VFW group that military spending is too high, or telling the Iowa Farm Council that government should not subsidize ethanol.

In Unafraid, Golden continues his idealistic yet intriguingly practical political speculation in a fascinating work of fiction which considers what might have happened in American public life if John F. Kennedy had survived the assassination attempt in Dallas. The book is smoothly paced and compelling.

Golden's point of view character is Kennedy`s daughter Caroline, reading a draft of a definitive biography of her father. We benefit from her own recollections added to the painstaking research of the biographer. It's tricky at first to discern where the fiction departs from history, but then quite satisfying to be caught up in the profile in courage that ensues. What becomes of J. Edgar Hoover, Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby Kennedy, Fidel Castro, the Cold War, American-Israeli-Arab relations, and the First World/Third World divide in a decade or two in which JFK is left to follow his star?

When Kennedy survives we are relieved of the depression and cynicism that have burdened our civic life to this day. We applaud his victories, and grasp the possibility of new and hopeful directions for foreign and domestic policy, for enlightened governance based on Kennedy's own idea that a nation should not be "afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market."

Jeff Golden has constructed a fine work of historical and political imagination. Unafraid, like As If We Were Grownups, should be required reading for political candidates and voters alike.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unafraid, May 16, 2008

By 

Lance - See all my reviews

This review is from: UNAFRAID: A Novel of the Possible (Paperback)

What if JFK had survived Dallas?

What if that experience had changed him,
changed his sense of what was possible and necessary to do?

That's the premise of a remarkable new book: Unafraid, by Jeff Golden.

This is a very rich and engaging novel that deals with a fascinating array of Big Ideas:
war and peace, the power of wealth and the power of vision, the Middle East, global domination vs. global equity, energy strategies (and more), along with the policies, politics, and public opinion that shape the world's realities.

It also reveals the very personal qualities, values, and visions of the people who were there. There are wonderful encounters between JFK and Bobby Kennedy, leaders of Congress and of the corporate elite, J. Edgar Hoover, Martin Luther King, Brezhnev, Castro, and many more.

Jeff Golden is a deeply insightful observer of society and politics, and he raises vitally important issues in this fascinating and very entertaining narrative. It's an important contribution that's also a treat to read. I hope that many people will read it and then spread the word to others.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If JFK had lived..., April 16, 2008

By 

John Steiner "John Steiner, transpartisan par... (Longmont, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: UNAFRAID: A Novel of the Possible (Paperback)

If Kennedy had lived. It sounds like science fiction, which it's not; historical fiction which it is. Jeff Golden uses this fascinating literary vehicle to offer a rounded and imaginatively revisited picture of President John Kennedy, as a man, as a leader, and as a visionary in the service of the kind of world that is still possible and to the kind of out-of-the-box leader we so desperately need. Kudos to Golden for this compelling blend of fact and fiction.