Snafu

Snafu: A Tale of Presidential Election and a Girl
Simon Plaster
Mossik Press
ISBN: 978-0-615-66621-1
2012
$ 7.99
191 pages


In military terms a Snafu is an acronym for Situation Normal, All “Fudged” Up. Please notice the “fudged” word is not what is normally used in the real world.

With the U.S. system of electing a President, there are always questions about the continuation of the Electoral College. Also, the knowledge about how this system works is often only taught in most schools every four years during an election year. The knowledge of the average American citizen and even politicians about the Electoral College is often embarrassing to educators, reporters, and those educated beyond high school.

Virgil Carter enjoys his life in a rural area of Oklahoma. He is a successful door-to-door salesman is selling Everlasting Leadware. He also decides to enter the race for to become the local County Commissioner.

Being at just the right, or wrong, place at the right time, he finds himself rocketed into becoming the Vice-Presidential candidate for the incumbent President. Unfortunately, Virgil is not the most knowledgeable candidate and even would like to enroll at the Electoral College as a student. (Yes, he is probably not the only citizen to consider this.) Virgil enjoys being the rising star of the Democratic Party. The party has the challenge of not allowing Virgil to talk or answer questions, ever.

In satirical novels such as Snafu, there is a fine line between tragedy and comedy when it comes to politicians and the knowledge they possess. Obviously based on previous politicians in our country and their ignorance of the basic governmental system or global issues, the author, Simon Plaster finds an abundance of real life incidents by politicians to base this satirical novel..

With the upcoming election in Snafu, the democratic,party chooses a campaign entitled, Everybody Counts. As this campaign becomes law, things do not always work as planned making a Snafu. Added to that, eight members of the U.S. Supreme Court are kidnapped and unavailable.

Simon Plaster resides in Odessa, Texas and has previously written Sumbitch: A Tale of Bigtime College Football and a Girl. There is a little negativity towards redheads, however, this ginger-haired author bases this lightly on his own experiences.

This short novel resembles an actual Presidential election which is at times overwhelming. The characters, unfortunately, are believable, especially with the ignorance of many politicians in their words and actions in an effort to be victorious. The extraordinary campaigns with multiple levels of simultaneous complexity make these elections difficult to truly comprehend and this novel does an outstanding job of explaining this system with oftentimes pathetic characters in laughable situations.

For a short experience regarding the politics of a Presidential election, read Snafu, for what can go wrong.