They hate me too. Here’s their review of my 2nd novel.
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Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista review by the Southern Poverty Law Center
Books on the Right: A Nativist’s Paranoid Vision by Susy Buchanan
July 2007
In 1973, a Frenchman named Jean Raspail wrote a bitter and paranoid novel about the “invasion” of his native land by starving Third World refugees. The book was a racist vision of the consequences of non-white immigration, aided and abetted, in the author’s view, by the weak-minded liberals who failed to resist it. For almost 35 years, The Camp of the Saints has been a Bible to the radical right.
Now, courtesy of former Navy SEAL Matthew Bracken, comes the American version, a portrait of the apocalypse Bracken fears will overtake America thanks to undocumented immigration from the south. The book is a fictionalized version of the Aztlan conspiracy theory, the idea that Mexico is secretly planning a “reconquista” (reconquering) of the seven states of the Southwest, that now animates large swaths of the anti-immigration movement. It’s being plugged on extremist websites, in gun magazines and similar electronic venues, and on immigrant-bashing radio shows like Peter Boyles’ program on KHOW-AM in Denver.
This isn’t the first angry, self-published novel from Bracken. His new book, Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista, is the second in a series that began with another paranoid fantasy about gun control and evil agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, a favorite bete noire of the extreme right. His latest book, marked by an enthusiastic interest in busty women, is a xenophobe’s racy vision of hell.
[A long detailed plot summary with numerous “spoilers” is snipped here. It can be read at the SPLC link.]
Domestic Enemies plods along between the over-the-top action sequences. Bracken oversexualizes his gun-loving heroine, devoting as much prose to her breasts as he does her weapons, which is a lot, and many minor players come off as one-dimensional caricatures. But a sexy heroine shooting guns of varying calibers at liberal, communist, open-borders villains in a world destroyed by immigration and multiculturalism is an irresistible fantasy for the audience this genre of fiction attracts, no matter the novel’s numerous flaws.
Of course, this fictionalization is hardly necessary, even for those given to this kind of thing. All one need do is listen to real-life zealots like Glenn Spencer, head of the hate group American Border Patrol, who puts it like this: “Our country is being invaded by Mexico with hostile intentions. When it blows up, they can’t say we didn’t tell them, when the blood starts flowing on the border and in L.A. We’re [talking] about la reconquista.”
Consider that review a badge of honor.
I like it. :)
And it was wrong because...?
Oh wait, I can't smell the response through the burning Citroens.
I presumed his native land was France as I had never heard of Jean Raspail or his novel. I looked it up and I was right. Apparently Jean Raspail's "bitter, paranoid and racist vision" of the future of France turned out to be a near bullseye perfect prophecy.
I guess when the SPLC uses words like "bitter, paranoid and racist" they mean "deadnuts accurate!"
I wish it WAS a "paranoid fantasy". Unfortunately the reality is even worse - not just a rogue cell of the ATF but orders from the evil scum at the very top.
Heh. Have you introduced your heroine to Laz? I just downloaded books 2 & 3 to my Kindle. I suspect I'm in for a real good read. I'll check out Castigo Bay next. I'll also download to my Nook Color (it's set up as an Android tablet with Kindle Edition on it as well). At times, with my eyesight, it's easier to read on that than on my Kindle touchpad.
Looking forward to them...