Harold J. Bienvenu

The Patriot is a gritty, fast-paced read that explores the darker side of America during the Communist Scare as the protagonist, William Boardman, founds the American Patriots and then exhorts large sums of money that spawns from the patriotic power. He meets the Tighes, a self-made millionare family, and convinces them to part with large sums of their hard-earned money. Money is the pillar on which the book is built on; William will do anything the market demands to get his hands on large sums of it.

The prose is accented with flowery speeches meant to throw the public, seen as mindless sheep, into a pocketbook opening fervor. "Smartness is only a matter of time and place," William quotes to a fellow swindler. They reason themselves the epitome of American, churning out false booklets which can be seen as a valuable weapon of every PR man.

The story takes an odd sort of turn as William is drafted into politics: this clashes with his conscious slightly. Although we do see a bit of humanity in him when he is with Lori, a blues singer, all is firmly stamped out by the ending chapter. The ending is unsatisfactory at best: William marries Cordelia Tighe, a self-proclaimed "queer" in order to further his political career with a trophy wife.

You begin to wonder as the last page flips shut if the book itself was a clever 'gimmick', appealing to the market of those who would buy something that has an american flag on the cover.… (altro)