During the countless hours I devoted to freeing myself of this task inflicted on me by The American Prospect 's editors, I spent very little time thinking about what I would write. Mostly, I escaped into fantasy by plotting ways to avoid finishing the novel, such as fleeing the country or elaborately faking my own death. T he Campaign is a projection of the Quayles' worldview. The hero, Bob Grant, is a fortysomething Republican senator who serves on the Armed Services Com mittee and believes strongly in family values. Just in case the real-life parallel is otherwise lost on readers, Grant's brother is named Tucker, the family name of both authors as well as the first name of Dan and Marilyn's son.
Some whites are able to write authentically about the black experience.
Marilyn Quayle and her sister are emphatically not among them. The novel takes place in the near future, so let's assume that Grant was born in 1950, his mother in 1930, and his aunt no earlier than 1920. This means she was sold into slavery a good 60 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The narration of Grandmama Grant's stories unintentionally employs surrealistically hilarious dialogue, similar to the scene from the movie Airplane in which June Cleaver speaks to a pair of black passengers in jive. Won't be but a winking of the eye, and I'll be taking that fiery chariot ride, myself.