America's Report Card

"Paranoia strikes deep ... into your life it will creep" - Buffalo Springfield Enough other reviewers have summarized the plot of this novel that for me to do the same would be akin to writing cliff notes to cliff notes. (It would bore both of us and won't tell you anything about the book that you probably don't already know by now.) I will say, however, that I found this book extremely compelling, and I was hooked into it from the first few pages. It's a dark and wonderful paranoid fantasy filled with enough social satire and black humor to make it simultaneously hilarious and deeply poignant. Normally, I am not one to engage in or encourage conspiracy theories, but the unprecedented amount of secrecy that our current administration insists on is enough to encourage some paranoid thoughts even in the most well-adjusted of citizens. John McNally does a masterful job of pulling those disquieting thoughts out into the open and shoving them in your face in a manner that makes you laugh, applaud, and shake your head in disbelief all at the same time. It is no small feat to have conspiracy theories (some plausible, some wildly implausible) drive so many characters in one book. It is even more difficult to do this while preserving reader sympathy for the essential humanity of the characters in question. I positively adored this book from start to finish and can honestly say that it's one of the best books that I've read in the last five years. On a small side note, I must take exception to the review that stated "McNally ... fails when it comes to writing female characters" and that the "conversations between his main male and female characters are so clearly male written". On the contrary, I found myself frequently surprised that he succeeded in nailing the female perspective so well. Clearly, that review was written by a man. (*wink*)

McNally is to literature what Michael Moore is to documentaries: both have a keen sense of our nation's zeitgeist, and neither is afraid to probe beneath and search for truths most of us gloss over or ignore. While you may think that you have not taken a test in years, McNally's great book-with biting humor and acumen-delivers the trenchant realization that, perhaps, each of us is being tested without informed or conscious consent. Some readers may consider America's Report Card satire; others may call it allegorcal political fiction. Read it, and decide for youself. But whatever you call it, you have to call it a great book!

This is a wonderful novel! Along with Jess Walters's "The Zero", it is one of the best descriptions of how life has changed in post-9/11 America. The characters are very real, funny, moving, and poignant. The themes of the book are very serious, but are conveyed with wit, humor, and irony.

I've always been a big fan of John McNally's work--Troublemakers and The Book of Ralph are personal favorites, so I eagerly awaited America's Report Card. I wasn't disappointed! Thrills, chills, and spills abound in this action-packed page-turner. I couldn't put it down during my morning subway commute, and you won't be able to either.

Five Stars! One of the most unusual novels I've read this year. A brilliant cautionary tale on the state of some of the citizens of the Union after '9/11' in this fictionalized world. John McNally, who actually scored standardized tests for a living at one time, is a wildly imaginative writer conjuring up a bevy of fascinating characters, organizations, and lifestyles, connected to but not bound by the standardized academic achievement test known as America's Report Card. He see-saws the reader between two main characters who are trying to find their way in pre- and post- 9/11 America beginning in two different locations in America's heartland. This refreshing novel runs the gamut of emotions with an air of foreboding. Near Chicago, Jainey the teen has a wild imagination expressed thru comic strips and 'acting out'; and meanwhile in Iowa, Charlie, the master's graduate, has a wild girlfriend who exudes sensuality: both of whom are scorers for America's Report Card. Then the novel grabs us by the hand and jerks us into it's world. High points of the novel: Petra Petrovich, who steals every scene she's in; a wild answer to an essay question; the descriptive prose surrounding the gymnasium incident; 4 August 2004; and the creepy feeling that some characters get that 'more is going on than meets the eye'. Is it ever!! Some characters are diverting, while others are repulsive at times, as the storyline begins to lead towards confrontation. Let's hope we never meet similar people like a few of these characters in real life. And there are some flat out hilarious scenes, amid the seriousness: the beginning of Part IV alone has at least three sidesplitting gaffaws. Mariah's statement hangs in the air: "the more you know, the less certain people like you". But is it true? You decide as you enjoy this oblique, but highly entertaining novel. Overall, McNally eventually folds the ENTIRE storyline onto itself with some neat tricks of storytelling, as he ties up all of the relevant threads in the storyline at the end. But this ending was not expected! "America's Report Card" is a compelling novel that will have the reader 'charging on' just to see where all of these people and their activities are headed to in the end. Warning: lots of crude language, but lots of mesmerizing scenes. A MASTERFUL feat of writing. Warning considered, it is Highly Recommended! I have virtually re-read the entire enjoyable novel a second time. Five Compelling Stars!! (Notes: * This review is based on an unabridged EBook digital download in Adobe Reader 7. Save a tree, download your books! * Now I must find and read McNally's "The Book of Ralph" and "Troublemakers".)