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Change Is Inevitable
A Real Collusion follows a mid-level ad guy who looks back on his best friend’s wild rise and fall as a grassroots political candidate that took on America’s two-party system. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I’ve been frustrated and angry about the US government’s dysfunction and the broken two-party system for a long time. Leading into the 2000 election, I consulted with the Committee For A Unified Independent Party on their fundraising and also wrote a song called “Bush And Gore Suck.” My band, Channeling Owen, played at a rally in NY for John Haglin, a third-party Presidential candidate. Somewhere along the way, I guess I started wondering what it might take for a third-party candidate to really get traction, and it occurred to me that it might need to be a mistake or an accident…..
The novel suggests that systemic change is incredibly difficult. How did you balance storytelling with the book’s more exposé-like elements?
That’s kind of my thing. I get excited about fighting injustice, and if there’s any truth to the pen being mightier than the sword, perhaps it can make a difference. In my previous book, The Organ Broker, I painstakingly explained how the organ donation system in the US is broken, what I believe caused it, and what I think the remedies could be. Rather than provide an academic paper on that (although I did write a magazine article for Everyday Health), I explained it through the eyes and experiences of a character named New York Jack. In A Real Collusion, I have tried to explain and dissect the dysfunction in our government through the eyes and experiences of two regular guys who almost take down the system.
How did your background influence the authenticity of the media and political scenes?
In 2005, I launched a natural soda brand, which I ran as CEO for six years. I also briefly ran a social-mobile technology company, and learned a bit about marketing and, in particular, digital marketing. I suppose that informed the scenes at the marketing agency but frankly, in my mind I think I imagined the look of it to be akin to the boardrooms I worked in when I first started my career on Wall St. The political scenes—as well as the discussion, policy statements, etc.—were born out of my genuine and passionate interest in political reform and the things I learned when doing some work for an independent political organization twenty-five years ago. Shit, I’m glad you asked. I thought I had just made it all up!
Do you see A Real Collusion as a warning, a mirror, or a conversation starter?
I think it is all of those things. I actually love what your Editor and Reviewer said about the book, making him feel, “Sad, angry, but also weirdly hopeful.” That is exactly how I feel. Like so many Americans, I feel angry about the broken system, the way politicians are self-serving and also choose party over country. I feel sad, and even exhausted, when it seems to never change. Yet, I do think that not only can things change, but that change is inevitable. The problem with change, or long-term evolution, is that it sometimes moves too slowly to be seen easily, or to benefit an individual within his or her own lifetime. I try to think about the timeline being humanity’s, and not my personal one of 80 or 90 years, and I continue to hope that things will get better and we will end up with a system of true and free democracy, with a government whose genuine goal is to serve the interests of the collective citizenry.
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From the author of the bestselling novel, The Organ Broker, (hailed by Lee Child, New York Times # 1 bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series as, “Exciting and thought-provoking–the perfect package”) comes, A Real Collusion, a stunning political thriller and expose.
A Real Collusion is a David Vs. Goliath(s) story about a man who accidentally becomes the leader of an independent political movement that nearly takes down the two-party system in America, while exposing a conspiracy that affects the results of the 2016 election. It explores universal and deeply human themes of loss, and the tension between justice and power. In the opening sentence the narrator points out that, “Ordinary people often do extraordinary things.” The characters in the book do, and the action is driven by the fantastic events of a unique political satire. It is also the heartfelt story of regular people struggling with lost love, alienation and nearly universal disaffection who find strength in enduring loyalty and friendship
This is the story of John Campbell (a regular guy from the lower east side of Manhattan) as recounted by his friend Skip Winters. Skip becomes John’s campaign manager and later, a congressman in his own right. He narrates the stunning-but-plausible story of how John Campbell and The American Coalition race to popularity, raising over a hundred million dollars from grassroots contributors—and become a threat to the political duopoly of the Democratic and Republican parties. The book sprinkles in references to real events from recent history, and real political leaders including Trump, John McCain, and more. This imbues the novel with a sense of realism, albeit one of an alternate reality. Skip discovers a deep-seated conspiracy within our political system whose leaders orchestrate a murder, destroy his friend and tip the scales of the election. The novel turns out to be Skip’s exposé of the secret collaboration between the two major political parties in our country—a cooperation to protect the duopoly that is, in part, real.
A Real Collusion
A Real Collusion is a political thriller told through the eyes of Skip Winters, a mid-level ad guy who looks back on his friendship with John Campbell and the wild rise and fall of a grassroots movement. It starts small, with a silly local fight over cigar smoke at a community board meeting in the Bowery, where John’s angry “I object” moment and a quick handshake outside the gym turn into a tabloid photo and a cable-news booking. From there, Skip helps John ride a wave of viral attention into the creation of the American Coalition, a scrappy effort to break the two-party lock, curb big money, and push more honest voting in Congress. As donors, TV producers, and dark-money groups close in, the story widens from New York to Washington and Philadelphia, where the movement crashes into a secretive business council and a lurking gunman in the crowd, leaving John’s legacy split between real reform and a sense that the system still has its hands on the wheel.
Skip sounds like that smart, slightly bitter friend who tells a story over a drink and keeps circling back to the parts that really hurt. The early chapters are vivid and weirdly fun: folding chairs tipping over in a hot school gym, cops’ lights splashing off old brick, a stunned ride on the F train with the Post open to a photo of your buddy on the front page. The scenes in the bar, the cramped apartment, the ad agency office feel specific and lived in, and the jokes land with a light touch instead of feeling like “political satire.” The author knows how to tighten the screws; the book shifts from goofy excitement to real tension smoothly, and by the time CNN calls and big donors sniff around, the momentum feels natural, not like the plot is dragging the characters along.
I did feel the “novel and exposé” label in the writing. When Skip and John hammer out the American Coalition platform and talk through campaign finance, independent candidates, and the way corporations game the rules, the book turns into a kind of civics lesson. I did not mind that most of the time, because Skip is honest about his own ego and fear, and that keeps the big ideas grounded in one guy’s midlife crisis and his hunger to matter. Still, a few speeches run long, and some side characters can drift toward types more than people. The scenes that follow the BCL and the man in the crowd with a gun, though, hit hard. They show how a hopeful movement can be bent or broken by a handful of people with money and no shame, and they made me uncomfortable in a way that felt earned rather than melodramatic.
The book made me angry, sad, and weirdly hopeful all at once. The introduction lays out a blunt case that the real threat to American democracy comes from inside, from quiet collusion between parties and donors who let inequality balloon while the middle class slides, and the plot keeps circling that point without ever feeling like a pure lecture. I liked how the story shows the media as both amplifier and filter, how a tossed-off joke about both parties “sucking” becomes a brand, how consultants and billionaires talk about “fixing the system” while protecting their own slice. The ending, with John gone and a handful of independents in Congress, hit me hardest; change happens, but not cleanly, and the people who lit the fire do not always get to see the house rebuilt. That left me thinking less about whether the plot was “realistic” in a narrow sense and more about how much of it already feels true.
I would recommend A Real Collusion to readers who enjoy political stories with heart, anyone who follows American politics and feels worn down but not completely checked out, and folks who like character-driven fiction about friendship, compromise, and the cost of sticking your neck out. If you are okay sitting with some ambiguity, some righteous anger, and a stubborn streak of hope, you’ll enjoy this novel.
Pages: 286 | ASIN : B0G5K3BJ1K
