The Great Man Theory

Paul is a recently demoted adjunct instructor of freshman comp, a divorced but doting Brooklyn father, and a self-desc­ribed “curmudgeonly crank” cataloging his resentment of the priorities of modern life in a book called The Luddite Manifesto. Outraged by the authoritarian creeps ruining the country, he is determined to better the future for his young daughter, one aggrieved lecture at a time.

Shockingly, others aren't very receptive to Paul's scoldings. His child grows distant, preferring superficial entertainment to her father's terrarium and anti-technological tutelage. His careerist students are less interested than ever in what he has to say, and his last remaining friends appear ready to ditch him. To make up for lost income, he moonlights as a ride-share driver and moves in with his elderly mother, whose third-act changes confound and upset him. As one indignity follows the next, and Paul's disaffection with his circumstances and society mounts, he concocts a dramatic plan to right the world's wrongs and gives himself a more significant place in it.

©2022 Teddy Wayne (P)2022 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Deserving of endless stars

Rarely do we get an author that has his own superb craft that can also stand up and propel such a crazy, heart-thumping story with believability. In other words, without Wayne’s fine writing skills, the story would not be convincing. Hope this makes sense.

Scratching at the wound, making it deeper

Watching a protagonist endure an almost unremitting march of indignities and injustices, frustrations and failures is a terribly demoralizing experience. Like watching “Breaking Bad” only without the successful drug enterprise. Just a basically decent middle aged man humiliated, abandoned, misunderstood, betrayed, rejected, ostracized, and finally losing everything.
Is it ironic or tone deaf that the poisoned and fractious nature of our current country is discussed a lot? Is it a purging or a death rattle to ultimately, so seamlessly, join in the violently suicidal noise of 21st Century America?
I really could have done without this.