Book Review: The Overton Window by Glenn Beck

What happens when a straight-laced, twenty-something New York City public relations executive follows a sassy young thing to a rally and falls into a rabbit hole of dissent and political unrest?

In The Overton Window, talking head and media personality Glenn Beck explores the possibilities in what is touted as a "thriller." But hold your horses; Alice in Wonderland this is not.

Beck takes the title from a political theory posed in the 1990s by Joe Overton of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. This shifting "window" of political options is based not on what politicians believe in, but rather on what they think they can push and support in order to win re-election.

Beck describes this book as "faction," fiction based in large part on facts. TheOverton Window includes a hefty appendix of articles, books and news stories as facts for the reader to research.

But remember, this isn't a textbook, this is a novel. His head turned by pretty temp worker Molly Ross, Noah Gardner strays from his traditional path of enjoying the good life and making things happen on Madison Avenue. His father is the mogul behind the scenes, a Wizard of Oz moving chess pieces all over the world. It's time for a major shake-up of the world as we know it, and the old man is privy to what is about to occur. (So does Molly Ross, as we learn later.) Noah is thrust from his cushy life into the grimy underside of both the establishment and the freedom fighters Molly Ross and her group represent.

Noah is being used - both by his father and by Molly. There's no averting the upcoming attack - which is devastating in its scope, and we leave Noah trapped in hell, not knowing his future yet hoping for better.

Much of the book is regurgitated rhetoric from Glenn Beck's mind and his TV and radio shows. As much as I like Beck and his manic, ADD-riddled enthusiasm on the little screen (especially when he's ingesting Twinkies or crying), translation to the written page is tenuously achieved. Other online readers have complained that it's far too preachy a read to be enjoyable.

Noah is first presented as a spoiled rich kid but ends up a likeable character. His rabbit hole is no picnic. While learning about the other side, he gets beat up, thrown into jail and worse. Molly, her friends, and mother, is reminiscent of freewheeling hippies (gone the opposite extreme on the political scale).

That being said, I have to admit that I liked The Overton Window. It's a short read, entertaining, and a definite page-turner. Beck is at his best when he's weaving the story. From the early reports, I thought the story line would be way, way out there, and I'm here to report it wasn't. In fact, for something described as right wing hysteria, The Overton Window was rather tame. In my "end of the world as we know it" imagination, I can see far worse things possibly happening.

Maybe Glenn Beck is saving that story for his next novel.