Book Review: The Overton Window, by Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck makes no bones about the goals he set for this book. He terms the publication a work of "faction", meaning the plot is absolutely fiction...but with many a fact cited throughout. How many facts? The book's Afterword specifically lists more than 120 of these, each reference woven seamlessly into the text so that even a lifetime bookworm like me failed to feel jolted or jarred in the least as each new true life event or publication was introduced.

That's mighty fine work. Either Beck is one of them thar natural born writers...or he's gotten himself one helluva fine editor...or both.

Probably both.

How good is the book as a thriller per se? Hmmm...it's like this: For more than half of the story, I could have yawned my way through it. Ho hum. Thriller Lite. One more predictable, low-tension plot, and--

--And then it grabbed me by the neck, shook me like a terrier shaking a rat, and wouldn't let me put the thing down again until I'd not only finished it but also read the Epilogue and the extensive Afterword. Enroute, I was ready to hate him as a writer and put him on my Lifelong Do Not Read List if the ending came out the way it looked like it was going to come out, and then sure enough, an extremely well done twist saved the day.

This thang is a sleeper, y'all.

Story aside (and it's not bad at all), this book is definitely worth keeping on your reference shelf. One example: In the photo above, a quotation attributed to Samuel Adams is highlighted. It reads as follows:

"If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; may your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."

I have not yet memorized those words, but I should do so. On this particular day, on the day that the Supreme Court of the United States declared in a 5 to 4 vote that the Second Amendment is indeed the law of the land, that We the People do indeed retain the right to keep and bear arms at our own discretion, I should do so.

On one of his recent television shows, Glenn said The Overton Window was written for those readers who are "almost but not quite there". In other words, for those citizens who know something isn't quite right with politics and government as they stand today but who need that last little piece of the puzzle--perhaps in story form for ease of assimilation--to finally experience that "AHA!!" moment. Having absorbed the book, I'd say that's about right. My own epiphany came nearly 20 years ago, so there was nothing remarkably new in this volume for me personally.

Even so, The Overton Window has earned a special place in our home, on a shelf within arm's reach of the computer. So far, it has just one other book for company in that spot selected to provide both inspiration and easy reference: Going Rogue, by Sarah Palin.

In closing, a final quote, this one by Glenn Beck himself, positioned in the text immediately after the Samuel Adams directive quoted above:

"Put up or shut up, in other words; go hard or go home. Freedom is the rare exception, he was saying, not the rule, and if you want it you've got to do your part to keep it."

Couldn't have said it better myself.