war fever

I'm reading War Fever right now, and I highly recommend it. The author is hilarious. Granted, I have only thus far read "The Secret History of World War 3", the story for which I borrowed the book from the library, but I was laughing only a few sentences in. The story, written around 1990, tells the tale of our country when we re-elect Reagan into his third term in office, after his "luckless successor" fails miserably, putting the country into a recession and very desperate times (I don't think Ballard knew at the time that he was talking about Bush, Sr., but what a prescient man he was, huh?). So the House and Congress pass a law allowing Reagan to return, and from the instant he's back in office, the stock market swells with happiness, the nation's optimism is up, etc. However, since Reagan is so old already, the country worries about every little change in his health, and thus the government starts pushing news stories about the president's health - everything from his heart rate to his bowel movements - to the exclusion of everything else! So that when WW3 happens, no one really notices, as it is smushed in between regular updates on how Ronnie & Barb are doing (they do also follow the First Lady's bowel movements, as well). Every TV channel starts broadcasting the president's realtime heart rate on the air, too. In any case, I really pretty much just told you the entire story, but definitely not nearly as well as Mr. Ballard does, so I would still suggest you check out the book. Particularly because there are 12 other stories in that book! Which already look to be promising. As the inside cover tells you, "J.G. Ballard is remarkably adept at blurring the distinction between the realities of the present day and his disturbing scenarios of life in the very near future." I would recommend it. I'll let you know if it gets better, or worse, or just stays as funny as it was. :)

Last night was Dan's mother's and her fiance's Jack & Jill party, which was pretty fun since there was plenty of wine (and Dan and I had lambic to start, mmm) and wonderful food. The chocolate-dipped strawberries were to die for. Wow I want another one... Anyway, I wish them both the best of luck - they are the cutest couple. Their wedding will be in late August. (And I still need to find a dress, gah.) Dan's little sister wrote the sweetest poem to her new (to be) stepdad. It's wonderful how close the rest of Dan's family seems to each other. I understand how he isn't quite as close because he is an adult and lives his own life by now, but he is lucky to have such a nice family. I think, deep down, he really does love them, hehe.

Well, I'm off to read a little bit more while I wait for Dan to wake up. Ciao!

Currently Reading:
TITLE: War Fever
AUTHOR: J.G. Ballard


TITLE: Why Girls Are Weird
AUTHOR: Pamela Ribon