Review: A Thriller dispensing `what ifs?' in a compelling novel
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 30, 2013
Author Mel Hawkins knows how to lock on to the reader's attention. Perhaps a part of this ability (aside from the fact that he writes quite well) is a result of his years as both a small business owner turned management and leadership consultant with insights gained from being involved with the courts, as a juvenile probation officer, as a manager of a group medical practice, and degrees in the science of education and public affairs. He has likely had every opportunity to see the underbelly of big government and the flaws that surface daily in this era of social media communication. As he has stated, `we are fast approaching a tipping point in which mainstream Americans can no longer bear the weight of the poor, the uneducated, the hopeless, the powerless, and the disenfranchised. As we sit by in our blissful ignorance and self-righteousness, that tipping point is rushing at us at the speed of desperation.'This is the most frightening aspect of Hawkins' successful quasi-futuristic novel LIGHT AND TRANSIENT CAUSES - though the setting is indefinite in time, Hawkins skill at erasing time barriers and including portions of elements that are very much with us adds to the terror of this theme. In the face of continuing acts of terrorism, loss of the support of allies, the crumbling of the economy, the U.S. Government has opted to cleanse the American population of minority races and impose martial law. `In Indianapolis two groups of Americans, one African-American (ReGenesis) and the other middle class professionals (The Resistance), independently choose to resist a government that no longer represents the will of its people. ReGenesis, Inc under the dynamic leadership of one remarkable man is committed to elevating African-Americans and other minorities from dependency to economic and political parity through education and free enterprise. The Resistance movement evolves from one couple who are enlisted as part of an Israeli underground railroad to help Jewish friends escape to Canada and on to Israel. When some of their African-American friends are targeted their numbers expand and the Resistance is founded. The movement is committed to attacking the legal and political legitimacy of the military government and, gradually, their leaders slip down the precipitous path of treason. Using outbreaks of racial violence as their justification, military state governments are creating encampments in the major cities across the nation into which African- and Hispanic-Americans are being interned. In Indianapolis, the leaders of ReGenesis and The Resistance join forces within the city's encampment to create what they call the "Free City of Indianapolis." The military government's response to what they refer to as this "act of treason" and "domestic terrorism" is swift and brutal repression.' (Excellent summary is from the PR for the book - very succinct.) Where Hawkins takes this unthinkable condition forms the book's passage into near science fiction - except that it is all too real in his including contemporary figures in his narrative that intensify the possibility of this being reportage rather than fiction.This is a lengthy novel that seems like a rapid-fire tale spinning out of control. Hawkins uses this platform to project many of his beliefs based on his wide exposure to the dark that is possible unless we as a county make some serious changes. Powerful, and tightly written. Grady Harp, September 13