The Innocent

"The Innocent" is the first volume in a projected trilogy (at least!) that, like Russian dolls, is a coming-of-age novel nested in a cultural critique nested in a thriller nested in a mystery. Todd Baker, a Vietnam vet and war hero, lawyer, vice-presidential candidate and all around American alpha dog, has done something naughty enough to land in a maximum-security psych facility and cause the Supreme Court to postpone the national election. He's putting the story of his life down on paper to help the country figure out why he did what he did and what to do next. This first volume goes from his earliest memories to the day he enlisted, from the early '50s to 1970. Instead of the idealized childhood we imagine for our heroes, he tells it like it is. From playing with his sister's paper dolls to playing war, from doing his thing with lingerie catalogs to falling in unrequited love, from teenage alcohol to pot and LSD, from religious devotion to amused disenchantment with authority's fairy tales, he punctures one myth after another. But he doesn't end up in nihilism. Underneath the illusions he uncovers a mysterious force that gives a kind of meaning to his experiences, a meaning that can be felt but not articulated. That reality draws him, as Conrad put it, to "embrace the danger element." By turns humorous and profound, and often both at the same time, he is always honest with the reader and himself. The humor is usually dark, because the darkness of life is about as dark as it gets. But throughout that darkness shines a light from the soul of anyone who journeys through it with eyes open and heart on fire.