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Book Review | Insecticide: A Republican Romance

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May 3

Insecticide: A Republican Romance

by Douglas Robinson

Genre: General Fiction / Political / Satire

ISBN: 9798891321960

Print Length: 398 pages

Publisher: Atmosphere Press

Reviewed by Lisa Parker Hayreh

All is fair in politics, mockery, and love. The year is 1931. Prescott Bush has established the Republic of Texas as a separate nation from the US. His rise to power has been enabled by none other than a giant 10,000-year-old bug named W. Averell "Dogsbody" Harriman. Thanks to him, all insects are considered protected species and insecticide is outlawed. Here, Abraham Lincoln is an ancient beetle from Lemuria who emerges from the bottom of a pond in Texas to deliver a prophetic message. Trust me when I say: You are going to be laughing out loud with this outlandish political parody.

As nefarious forces duke it out for the soul of the nation, the Bush family sits at the center of it all. George H. W. Bush flounders as a dim-witted CIA operative with a salacious secret. Hysterical malapropisms pepper his narratives of political escapades. George W. Bush is a genetically engineered clone who self-medicates with multiple substances much of the time. He requires numerous adjustments to his programming to correct deficits in his functioning. Laura Bush is cultivated as the fated love interest for George W. Bush, despite her fish-loving, progressive origins.

Throughout the novel, increasingly mysterious circumstances occur. Beetles swarm and crawl over people who remain oblivious. Talking fish bubble up through the toilets. More and more people disappear. The suspense builds to a political showdown of epic proportions.