Customer Reviews

Unafraid: A Novel of the Possible

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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.

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.

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.

"Unafraid" is not just another new novel. Jeff Golden has done something more significant and unique. He has restored part of our country's story that was stolen from us on November 22, 1963 when John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

Many of us remember that day and the shock and profound sense of loss of someone in whom we had vested so many hopes. What we didn't realize is that we'd lost something more. We'd lost our belief in a whole realm of possibilities for this country. And, contrasted to JFK, the presidents who followed just hammered in the 'fact' that an irretrievable moment had passed with his death. Later revelations about Kennedy's personal life served to eradicate even our memory of those hopes.

What was lost was a story of what this country might become if we had a president with the ability, vision and character to lead us in the right direction. Now, in the dark days of 2008, it is up to us to rebuild our nation. We need that lost story to bridge back to the point when we innocently believed in the better possibilities of America rather than being doomed to the worst.

Jeff has restored that lost branch of the American story. He has changed one fact of November 22nd and created the story that could have happened. This gives us a vehicle for our imagination and our emotions to take the rebuilding of our country into our own hands.

"Unafraid" needs to reach as many people as possible, especially during this election season. This a call to our fellow citizens to believe again in what America can be and to join our wills to make it a reality.

A fascinating alternative history: what if JFK had survived the assassination? What worst fears of his enemies might have come to pass? This book is solidly grounded in the history of the 60s - more than will be apparent to most of us - and poignantly reminds us how many hopes were lost in Dallas.

The big assassinations of the 1960s were the most visible signs of a real war: what did that war decide? This alternative history is an important tool for thinking about the changes then.

We live in a world which was shaped by the winners of that internal war: among them Hoover, Johnson, and Nixon. It is important to remember how much we live in the world they made: a world of synchronized news media, of politicians bought by bribes and blackmail, of perpetual war, of political speech circumscribed by endless taboos. We are ruled in secret, and stampeded by fear.

This book is not about the assassination: it is about power, and the nature of a republic. It explores ideas, and not merely facts: the dialogues involving Hoover, or Joe Kennedy, or Fidel Castro, or Martin Luther King are deep. This is well worth reading.

If you have any memory of John Kennedy and Camelot, this book is a must read. Not only extremely well written and balanced, but truly a novel of the possible. Hopefully Barack Obama gets to read this, as it certainly offers a course of action, both dangerous and thrilling which could make his world so much a better place. It also bears a curious resemblance to Obama's projected agenda. At a time when we face crossroads which may decide whether or not we remain alive on the planet, this inspires hope. Don't miss it - it's a great read!

UNAFRAID is historical fiction, pure and simple. Without giving too many details, JFK survives his assassination, inherits tremendous political capital, and uses it. It helps to be a fan of JFK (and not like LBJ and not care that much for RFK) to enhance the enjoyment of this book, as he comes off as the hero. Prior knowledge of the 1960s definitely helps as well, as the case of most historical fiction. Most of the pages fly by fast with minimal drag.

What if is a question commonly asked, and "Unafraid: A Novel of the Possible" seeks to answer it. A look back into what history could have been had the assassin of President John F. Kennedy had failed in his mission. With a unique story playing out that uses popular icons of twentieth century politics and using their alternative history to shed new light on them and our world in real history, "Unafraid" is a novel that historical fiction fans in general will enjoy from beginning to end.

Imagine a world where John F. Kennedy wasn't assassinated. And, because of that, the historical timeline unfolds in a direction quite different than what we all experience today. What would the 60's have been like? And the 70's, 80's and 90's? And what could have happened if Jack Kennedy then responded to the assassination attempt with the courage that he so admired in other leaders?

Jeff Golden's UNAFRAID: A NOVEL OF THE POSSIBLE weaves an intriguing story of possibilities (that probably wouldn't have happened even if Kennedy HAD lived) that asks a deeper question about courage and leadership in the face of daunting historical and institutional challenges. What if we had a leader who had the real courage and conviction to make political and ethical decisions based on the goals, dreams and visions that we all have for a world that works? What if?

Golden's book offers up hope in the midst of conflict, confusion, overwhelm, despair and pessimism; maybe that leader is really out there somewhere.

...you'll be drawn into this book, as I was. It's intriguing to think about what JFK might have done with a second term, and downright exciting to imagine leaders who are respected because of their integrity, their charisma and their effectiveness on the world stage. Oh! Could that happen? This book convinced me that it could, and entertained in the process. Though I knew what was going to happen, I couldn't stop reading every speech, every deliciously imagined dialogue.