cover image Not Fade Away

Not Fade Away

William Keisling. Yardbird, $24 (558pp) ISBN 978-1-882611-12-6

Long and unwieldy, this strained, styleless and implausible novel takes the reader on an apocalyptic joy ride from Eisenhower's presidency to John Lennon's assassination. Concerned about national security, Eisenhower appoints General George Natlong head of a supersecret national security task force; the agency is so secret, in fact, that succeeding presidents forget about its existence. Unable to draw presidential attention to glaring weaknesses in the U.S. defense position, Natlong decides to demonstrate the perilous state of U.S. nuclear missile codes by launching the missiles himself. He hires computer scientist Linda Patterson to build a super computer that can produce exponentially more powerful versions of itself. Soon, the penultimate computer in her series, Epimetheus, needs just one more upgrade before it's ready to go into launch mode. As day zero approaches, George's spoiled, rich wife insists that George give her niece Claire a place in the Virginia compound where George has carved out an underground nuclear shelter. Claire brings along her boyfriend, Paul Stocken, who believes he is the reincarnation of the legendary Buddy Holly. Paul and George immediately hate each other. Eventually, their confrontation, which is also the clash of good old rock 'n' roll and bad old militarism, results in the foiling of George's plot, and the first rock video. Keisling's second novel (after The Meltdown) is an endless shaggy dog story that never becomes even remotely comic. (Aug.)