Narrating Through The Non-Fiction

Non-fiction is full of lies.

Some of them are deliberate. The lies the spin doctors spin. Some are matters of blindness, some lack of imagination, some of shallowness. Some of propriety. Some of fear. The simple fear of saying things that no one else is saying. Sometimes it's from being stuck in the trees and never seeing the forest, let alone the earth from which it grows or the relationship to the sun and the air and sky and the rain and the rivers that run underground.

In all that I've read about George W. Bush, in non-fiction, I've never seen anything that truly illuminated the man.

In all that I've read about the war in Iraq, in non-fiction, trying to figure out why we went to war there, there was nothing that rang so true that I said, that's it, that's the reason.

Until, actually, about a month ago, when Russ Baker ran a story about Mickey Herskowitz, who had some 20 meetings with Bush back in 1999, preparatory to ghosting an autobiography. The story goes back to the Reagan administration. Which had many of the same cast of characters that are running the country now.

They had the perception that having small, successful wars was the key to a successful presidency, to passing their domestic agendas, and to re-election. They had been inspired by Maggie Thatcher's adventures in the Falklands, which took her from being on the verge of losing office, to becoming the longest serving British Prime Minister in modern history.

That was the essence of "American Hero," the book that became "Wag the Dog" (to be re-released with that title next month.) It was considered outrageous, far-fetched and satirical. All of which it was. But it was true. It was truer than any of the non-fiction myths and legends that they ran for us all those months on television. Or even that they told us in the non-fiction books.

Herskowitz says that Bush said: "My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it." And you can imagine young George standing there, during those years and watching it happen. "If I have a chance to invade ... if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency." That rings true.

I was on my way to a tennis game with Scott Menchin, an illustrator, and he said, "This is an administration that wouldn't give up power, even if they lost the election."

That rang true. It was also a great premise for a thriller. So I asked if he minded if I used it, and he said no.

My very next thought was that I would make a librarian the hero.

At that point, about 18 months ago, librarians were the first, and among the only people, standing up to the excesses of the administration. Also, there was something inherently comic – and dramatic – about making a librarian the hero of an action novel. Especially if I didn't turn him into an Indiana Jones character. But left him pretty much like the guy who works in your neighborhood or university library.

I'd written the following some 10 years earlier, on the acknowledgements page of "Wag the Dog," thanking my local librarians:

We get most of our information in shallow, predigested sound bites and headlines. Whenever we want, or need, to look a little deeper, to think a little more seriously, our libraries are our most effective resource. Frequently, our only resource. Certainly, for the average person, the only affordable one.

So there was another contrast there. The kind of knowledge and understanding we get by going to the library versus what we get on television. It is more about that now than ever before. George W. Bush won re-election – to the degree that he was elected either time – based on voters having delusions.