Shooting for the Big Time

Authors

  • Michael L. Shuman University of South Florida Author

Keywords:

Gary D. Rhodes, Offed, fame, satire, media, Don DeLillo

Abstract

Michael L. Shuman reviews Gary D. Rhodes’s Offed: A Novel (BearManor Media), a satire narrated by Birch Barr, a Kennedy-assassination obsessive who becomes a celebrated serial killer of liberal figures after a right-wing television host hails him as a hero. Reading Barr against Don DeLillo’s Libra and research on the psychology of fame, Shuman praises the novel’s humor, its restraint with violence, and its timely warning about media-driven “alternative facts.” He notes that some readers may find the omniscient chapters insufficiently distinct from Barr’s voice, though he argues the similarity serves Rhodes’s point.

Author Biography

  • Michael L. Shuman, University of South Florida

    Michael L. Shuman had long careers in both newspaper management and software development before earning his PhD and joining the Department of English at University of South Florida, where he teaches writing for the technical professions and coordinates the department’s internship program. Dr. Shuman is Deputy Editor of The Mailer Review.

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Published

2020-10-15

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Book Reviews

How to Cite

Shuman, Michael L. “Shooting for the Big Time”. The Mailer Review, vol. 14, no. 1, Oct. 2020, pp. 289–294, https://mailerreview.org/journal/article/view/748.