A fictionalized political history of our times, GREED ties together dozens of lives and reaches as far back as the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater. Names have been changed, both those now living and others recently deceased, e.g., Branch -> Bush, William Wallace -> Ronald Reagan, and some characters are an amalgam of several persons. However, the stories ring astonishingly true.

As a gripping story of the last decade, it is entertaining and at the same time disturbing. Although truly fiction, it has nonetheless sent me repeatedly to the Internet to search out the real stories on line. Because I downloaded the book, I read it in PDF form, and I have my web browser open to my favorite search engine and to the very valuable Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki).

I have searched on the author's own name, locating her fascinating blog (http://howtheneoconsstolefreedom.blogspot.com) and followed links and names therein. I looked up personalities like Leo Strauss and Baron von Steuben on the Wikipedia.

The novel has humor and pathos, it depicts heroism and degradation, it encourages one to hope and invites one to mourn. But at all turns, it tells a story that, notwithstanding being fiction, in some sense seems more truth than imagination.

And it spurs one to action. The author's message progressively becomes clearer as the central characters gain insight into how politics and business really work today, and what this means for their own life choices. And here is where the novel-as-truth comes in most strongly. Our own life choices are also up for review.

Read it actively, search out the stories online, and turn it over in your mind. You will find great pleasure both in the read and in following up on the connections.