Addressing the lack of fictional literature written from a non-mainstream point-of-view, a Cambridge, Massachusetts novelist and activist has come out with "American Dream." The back cover of the new paperback novel reads:

"Meet Wheatgrass Man and his 'older single dude crowd,' soldiers in the anti-globalization protest movement. From their vantage point in Central Square, 'Mental Square,' Cambridge, they grapple with Love in the Age of E-Mail Romance, while struggling to survive the gentrification of their neighborhood.

'Disconnectedness' is everywhere. As they plot and plan to stop what they call the coming 'World Corporate Government,' they make their way across an urban landscape full of colorful and crazy characters, sometimes literally. Indeed, the narrator readily admits he is 'no paragon of sanity' himself. But, 'just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you don't have enemies,' he says. An inside view of the action launched at the Battle of Seattle, 1999, when a major meeting of international monetary institutions was shut-down by popular protest, from some of its more quirky, idiosyncratic proponents, modern-day patriots.

Their journey is funny, insightful of the absurdities of our times, and sometimes, wise. You may find yourself asking: just who is really crazy here? With courage and unflinching honesty, the story sweeps us into 9/11 and beyond."

In one excerpt, the narrator says:

"[The] Battle of Seattle turned the media on its ears, caught it with its pants down, clowns playing catch-up ball. How is it all these people grasped the essence of an obscure economic conference, sounded the alarm, and converged by the tens of thousands to alert the world? To warn that freedom and the democratic form of government itself were about to be sold? The moguls, Time Warner-NBC-CBS-New York Times et al, were left sitting on the sidelines scratching their collective balls, filling the news hole with whatever fluff they could find, because no one knew what the hell was happening.

Doing the Curly Shuffle.

That was before they got their heads together and came up with the Official Line: tens of thousands of people just looking for a dose of the Sixties, nothing better to do, nyuk nyuk."

And recalling Al Gore’s role in lowering target reductions for greenhouse gas emissions at the Kyoto Conference, the narrator says:

"You've got to hand it to Al, though, the guy is good. He keeps right on sounding like Mister Environment, shameless as the killer who volunteered in the search for the body. You must have utter contempt for your victims to keep a straight face like that, the mark of the consummate assassin."

More info on the book and the author are at http://angelfire.com/art2/americandream