Slick : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: provocative parallels with presidential politics
Review: As I submit this, the furor over the allegedly forged Texas Air National Guard memos about Lt. Bush is still in the news. If they WERE forged (and I think the verdict is still out on that), then the further question of who forged them, and why, is plausibly answered by analogy with the following passage from this novel.


_________________________________________________________


This book is about an ethically challenged publicist
who devises a scheme to help a rapper named Jeremy (aka Hunta) who's
about to be publicly accused of sexual assault. The ruse is: the
publicist will produce another accuser who will go public first with
charges that she was sexually assaulted by Hunta -- and then that
accuser will be discredited.
Here's a novel with a plot that hinges on a scheme to clear a man
who's under suspicion by faking an accusation in the expectation that
the fake will be discredited.

Some of the dialogue in
which the publicist explains the scheme to the rapper and some of his
associates:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"You want to save Jeremy from one slanderous charge by hitting him
with another."

..."No," I assured him. "I want to save him from one slanderous charge
by missing him with another. That's the key difference....

"There were a lot of other women at that Christmas party," I
continued. "If we get just one of them to beat Lisa to the press with
the exact same charge and the exact same story, down to the minute,
then Lisa will be jammed forever. She'll be nullified. What's she
going to say? 'No, Hunta didn't sexually abuse that woman that night.
He was too busy sexually abusing me'? Nobody would take her seriously.
She'd be a copycat. A shameless opportunist. She'd barely get a
mention....

"... as far as the press is concerned, it's not who's right, it's
who's first. If we get there first, our woman will be the tent pole.
She'll be the one the reporters rally around. And once she goes down,
everyone goes down with her. It's like fruit from a poisonous tree.
That's why it's really important that we work fast and get our decoy
out there first."...

Simba remained firmly rooted in skepticism....

"I don't understand," she said. "You're going to have one of these
dancing skanks come forward, frame Jeremy, and then what? Admit it was
all a lie?"

"Yes, but not hers. That's the best part. She'll tell the world she
was offered a lot of money by some unnamed source, some shadow
conspirator with an anti-rap objective. The press will eat it up.
They'll do a total 180 and go after all the people who were going
after Hunta. How's that for payback?"

I turned to Hunta.... "Not only will this silence Lisa, not only will
this turn you from monster to martyr, but this'll weatherproof you
against all future accusations. For the rest of your life, you'll have
the benefit of the doubt. You'll have precedent."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



To be explicit about the parallels I propose - Jeremy (Hunta) is Bush; the actually assaulted woman is Bush's real record in the Guard; the false accuser is planted memos created by Karl Rove - apparently several years ago. If the planted memos are shown to have been forged, all the actual facts about Lt. Bush's performance can be ignored.



For more info about the "mark of Rove" - how this evil manipulator works - see the book and DVD Bush's Brain.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: I am one of those moms who ignored her kids for 2 days (only 2, I started at 4AM) and enjoyed every minute of it. I read lots of fiction, but throw out a lot after 100 pages or so of sterotyped characters, worn-out plots, and cliches that just won't die. SLICK was totally different - One of the few novels of which I read every word -(I even skimmed DaVinci Code.) Fast paced, intriguing characters, and no silly car chases or melodramatic seduction scenes. Really makes you think, and gives you lots of neat info for Jeopardy in the process. Finally, a novel that portrays characters, and life, the way they are; complicated, sometimes messy, but intriguing if you are just willing to actually think about things, rather than accept whatever is fed to you.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down! (except to sleep at night)
Review: I generally ready ~2 books per week. Slick was recommended to me and I was completely seduced, enlightened and amused. I read Slick in 3 days and have begun to pass it on as well as directing friends to Amazon. As a professional clinician and educatior I was unfamiliar with the world of "PR manipulation". Slick provided a very entertaining and disconcerting reality check.
I look forward to Daniel Price's next novel!
Photo pretty handsome too ;)

Rating:
Summary: what a read
Review: I got a copy of this book from a friend, and once I had read it, I felt in a strange way that I had read it several times before -- there's a certain familarity to these characters, one that makes them seem completely relatable. Yet at the same time, they're so complicated that I wonder what kind of pleasantly devious mind the author must have.

It's this maddening combination of the relatable and the incredible that makes Slick great. When a book can make you at once cringe and laugh, gasp and nod, anticipate and react, you know it's good. It helps that the book is just well written, and that the author depicts everything with colorful detail -- even down to such details as the lanky young courier Mick and the clerk Jimmie (my two favorite characters, though their appearance is brief). The complicated "humanness" of all the protagonists and antagonists, the book's unpredictability, and the inherent contradictions that combination manifests, make Slick a maddening yet ultimately satisfying and very enjoyable romp.





Rating:
Summary: An Addicting Pleasure
Review: I had thought that, after a week or so of having the book at my house, I could write to you and tell you how much I loved the book. But, frankly, I haven't seen the book since Friday.

Turns out my wife, who has admittedly not read a book in almost a decade, is soaking in "SLICK". She's consumed. She's engrossed. She's addicted. She's gone. It has become an appendage and she's on a binge like none I've witnessed before.

She sits on the couch all day mumbling things to herself like "that's neat how he does that" and "I never expected that." Or, when she's feeling vocal, we get a full sentence: "This book is really intriguing and I really like the way he writes -- for our generation, with humor and inclusive of so many current events." The kids love that full-sentence -- it almost feels like Mom is talking to them like she did in the days Before The Book (BTB).

Mostly, though, we just hear cries of "WOW!" and "SLICK!"

Her children miss her -- or so it seems. But, they'll get over it soon. Mom should be back by tomorrow (she's on page 409).

Just don't write a sequel. My family can't handle it.

Rating:
Summary: What a pleasant surprise!
Review: I'm a Clive Cussler, Dale Brown, Stephen Coonts kind of person -- with an occasional "different" novel thrown in. Dan Price's SLICK -- once I got into the very different kind of story -- turned into a page-turner. It is superbly written in a way that is unique. I now watch TV news with a different kind of skepticism. I paid full-price and it was worth it!

Rating:
Summary: Original and entrancing
Review: I'm primarily a non-fiction reader. I suppose that the fiction novels I've picked up have been poorly written with unbelievable dialogue and characters, or they've just been plain boring. So, given all of this, I'm not sure what prompted me to pick up Slick. I suppose it was the dust jacket which promised a story about mass media manipulation, an idea that intrigued me.

Price creates characters that are original and interesting. His prose is witty and engaging and the plot has enough twists to give you cramps. I was engaged at almost every turn waiting to find out what the next surprise was going to be or how relationships were going to develop. Best of all, the excellent pace of the book is maintained straight through to the end.

"Slick" makes you think hard (in case you hadn't already) about the upside-down "wag the dog" world we live in. And, while he's at it, Price even manages to make you think about another bizarre media oddity: hip hop. If ever there were two worlds which feed on each other, it's tabloid news and rap artists. His analysis of these issues via the plot of "Slick" will not insult your inteligence or tell you what you already know. What else can you ask from a novel?

Rating:
Summary: Not only Slick, but brilliant!
Review: Nothing was real, and I believed every word of it! And even though it had as many pages as 'Godsend', (464) it was infinitely more entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: An engrossing, engaging novel that makes you *think*!
Review: Price's SLICK is a thoroughly engrossing, thought-provoking romp with a terrific voice. By turns laugh-out-loud, ironic, and wittily dry, the storyline whisks you along from the start. Price has a dead-on eye for pop culture, and delivers more subtle (and not-so-subtle) references than "Shrek 2". SLICK picks at the scab of our obsession with infotainment/pseudonews and makes you squirm with the guilty pleasure of it all. Here's hoping it makes you look at the world around you with a more critical eye, too.

Rating:
Summary: What a ride!
Review: Through a perceptive and witty lens, Price delivers a deeply compelling and complex story, full of deceptions and devastating revelations. While the machinations of protagonist Scott Singer might, at first, prove off-putting for the faint at heart, Price wisely makes Singer alternately enthralled by, and disgusted with, his mission. Reader beware: You'll experience similar emotions. What a ride!