''American Hero'' is a 1993

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

, reissued as ''Wag the Dog: A Novel'' in 2004, written by

Larry Beinhart Larry Beinhart is an America novelist, columnist, and blogger. He is best known as the author of the political and detective novel '' American Hero'', which was adapted into the political-parody film ''Wag the Dog''. Biography Beinhart has indi ...

. It speculates that

Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

had been scripted and choreographed as a ploy to get

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

reelected to a second term (taking cues from

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

's similar war in the Falkland Islands), while at the same time analyzing exactly why that conflict had been so popular. The book formed the inspiration and basis for the 1997 film, ''

Wag the Dog ''Wag the Dog'' is a 1997 American black comedy political satire film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. Produced and directed by Barry Levinson, the film centers on a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer who fabricate a war in Al ...

''.

Plot

On his death bed,

Lee Atwater Harvey LeRoy "Lee" Atwater (February 27, 1951 – March 29, 1991) was an American political consultant and strategist for the Republican Party. He was an adviser to Republican U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and chairman ...

devises a plan to secure president

's reelection by having a war professionally produced by Hollywood agent David Hartman. The plan is set in motion after Atwater's death, and Hartman hires movie director John Lincoln Beagle to produce the fake war. Beagle cancels other film projects to be able to prioritize the production of the war, among them one with movie star Magdalena Lazlo, who hires private investigator Joe Broz to find out why her film was cancelled. Broz, who works for the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

branch of the large private security company Universal Security (U.Sec.), first moves in with Lazlo as her chauffeur/bodyguard to perform background investigation. When he discovers that Lazlo's house has been bugged by U.Sec., the two stage a simulated love affair to confuse their observers. As part of this cover story, Broz pretends to have taken over as Lazlo's agent, a social ascent that gives him better access to the people that might be behind what the two assume to be a conspiracy against Lazlo. Meanwhile, Beagle has brainstormed possible war scenarios and has decided to produce a remake of World War II dubbed "WWII--the video." The situation escalates when an aide to Beagle, an aspiring script writer, contacts Broz with a script for Lazlo and when U.Sec., assuming that the aide wants to leak details about Beagle's secret project, steps in and kills the writer. Lazlo and Broz, together with the latter's ex- Marine friends finally begin to understand the background situation better and manage to steal a memo from Beagle outlining the project. In return, U.Sec. kidnaps Lazlo and trades her for the memo. After a martial arts showdown, all parties agree to a truce, but at a film event in Mexico, U.Sec. decides to act unilaterally, killing Lazlo and a stranger they mistake for Broz. The detective, heartbroken, then turns to drinking and eventually knocks at a fictional author's door to tell his story.

Editions

The story’s final plot element is present only in some editions of the novel, and is omitted from individual translations.

Reception

Reviews

Reviews focused mostly on the plot and were mixed. In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'',

Caryn James Caryn James is an American film critic, journalist, university lecturer, and writer. Biography She grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, and obtained her doctorate in English literature at Brown University. She began working as a freelance jour ...

called the book "surprisingly flat", whereas

Richard Eder Richard Gray Eder (August 16, 1932 – November 21, 2014) was an American film reviewer and a drama critic. Life and career For 20 years, he was variously a foreign correspondent, a film reviewer and the drama critic for ''The New York Times''. ...

in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' praised it as a "funny, ingenious and outrageous political thriller".

Critique

The novel has received only limited critical attention. It is featured in depth in a chapter in Stacy Olster's ''The Trash Phenomenon'' and in several academic publications by Sebastian M. Herrmann. Olster reads the novel in the context of postmodern cultural recycling and as commentary on a cultural shift away from text, stating, "For Beinhart, 'images have now replaced words as repositories of history' leading to a situation in which 'changes of history can be achieved by changes in imagery'." Herrmann lauds the novel's postmodern quality and its "diegetic and narrative games" and reads its central concern with the manipulation of political reality as indicative of an "epistemic panic" and, in consequence, as indicative of early forms of

post-truth politics Post-truth politics, also described as post-factual politics or post-reality politics, amidst varying academic and dictionary definitions of the term, refer to a recent historical period where political culture is marked by public anxiety about w ...

.{{Cite book, title=Presidential Unrealities: Epistemic Panic, Cultural Work, and the US Presidency, last=Herrmann, first=Sebastian M., date=2014, isbn=9783825363338, location=Heidelberg, oclc=882075518

References