by Willie Geist
First published 2010
Willie Geist crafts fictional scenarios starring real political and cultural figures who dominate American headlines. The MSNBC host transforms his television commentary into satirical fiction. Geist imagines Sarah Palin delivering her presidential inaugural address on WWE Monday Night Raw after winning the 2012 election. He creates a Dean Martin style roast welcoming Bernie Madoff to Hell, with Pol Pot as roastmaster. The book includes fabricated FBI wiretap transcripts of Rod Blagojevich's everyday phone calls, complete with profanity. George W. Bush plans a presidential library featuring batting cages and waterslides. Obama, Oprah, Lindsay Lohan, Snooki, and the White House party crashers the Salahis all appear in invented scenes. Geist takes his sharp political observations from Morning Joe and pushes them into absurdist territory, creating situations that feel uncomfortably close to reality. The fictional scenarios reflect the circus atmosphere of contemporary American politics and celebrity culture.
Genres: satire, american-fiction, american, 21st-century, political-thriller
Vibes: absurdist, fast-paced, satirical, thought-provoking
Tropes: absurdist-fiction, fictional-scenarios, political-satire
Period: 2012
240 pages · Hardcover · Hyperion