Abandoned a third of the way through. It's not that it's not well written. But an account of a group of die-hard Republicans seeking to undo (this is set in 2008-9) the 'wrong' of a black man, a Democrat being President is just too depressing a read at the moment, with the current Republican party of 2023 apparently in thrall to Trump and at risk of his being re-elected. I've just looked again to see if I should try again. Nope. Can't do it. ( )

The Unfolding, A. M. Homes, author, William Damron, narrator
In this novel, the year is 2008, and the results of the election have thrown some members of the Republican Party into a state if panic and turmoil. A small group, some of whom are crude, is organized by “the big guy”. He sets about to right the sinking ship and to restore the Republican Party to power, by revitalizing the policies and values of the Founding Fathers. The means would justify the ends. They believed they were guided by their love of the country, but their need to regain the spotlight seemed to highly motivate them. They were determined to stop the country from going downhill under the leadership of Barack Hussein Obama. They could not believe that they had lost the bully pulpit. They had taken their eye off the ball.
According to the book, these men worked with an “underground group that claims to have been formed around the time of Israel’s creation. Behind the scenes they set the stage to take back control, creating false rumors of socialism and pandemics, while also arranging other chaotic events. Included in the narrative are the personal trials of some of the characters. This enabled the author to insert current liberal issues like those concerning sexual preference and women’s rights.
Today, we have witnessed the fruition of many of the ideas presented in this book. However, although the author seemed to be mocking and branding the Republicans as the ones capable of this treachery, a dream that would take some decade and a half to fulfill, so that in 2026, all would be “right” with the world, in actuality, it was the Democrats who have overtly committed these same acts the author ascribed to the Republicans. They have made false accusations about people and instigated the environment that has created instability and unexpected crises, throwing the world into a state of turmoil.
Could the author have imagined, when she wrote the book, that the world would be spinning so far out of control? In retrospect, with a clearer, perhaps more honest eye, looking back over the last decade and a half, to Obama’s election and the changes he hoped to make and did make, it might seem obvious that the chaos and confusion was created by those on the left, as the Progressives gained more and more control of the message and began to corrupt the core values of the country regarding right and wrong, election integrity and civil rights. When the FBI, the CIA, the DOJ and the media all fell in line with them, the stage was set.
Then, in light of the recent horror of October 7th, 2023, the attack on Israel, in which a massacre occurred that has not been adequately condemned by the Democrats or their members, some of whom are actively instigating and encouraging violence, supporting terrorists, the relevance of the book seemed to pale in my eyes.
Perhaps the author meant it as a humorous view of politics, with its flaws, but it turned out to be prophetic. The election of 2008 actually ushered in an era of division and hate, promoted by identity politics and the left. ( )

I enjoyed this. It was very readable, smart, and rather humorous in places. But, in the same way that I was always puzzled and disturbed by the deep animus directed toward President Obama by the extreme right, I never quite understood the motivations of the core characters in this novel. Was it plain racism, a vague concern about socialism, or simply unexamined fear of change? I also found it delicious that, in an age of conspiracy theories embraced by the right, this novel describes an actual conspiracy from the right: fairly ridiculous, but also quite chilling and unsettling, and all too verisimilitudinous. ( )