The Patriarch: A Novel of Corruption and Terrorism, Love and Loss

by: G. N. Buffington

Published by: iUniverse, Inc.

Reviewed by Kristin Grabarek

G. N. Buffington beckons his readers to travel two years into the future, where they find that American policy on Iraq has changed little. New York City journalist Jacob Sellars, sent to report on memorial services for oil tycoon Joshua Crane, quickly unearths the questionable past and murky dealings of Crane’s corporation.

With his own troubled past pushing him toward making a new path, Sellars does not hesitate taking the opportunity to write a freelance piece on the Crane family. The odds stack up against him rather quickly: he becomes entangled in an unhealthy romance with Crane’s granddaughter; is threatened by repeated efforts to silence the story; and becomes the target of more than one violent attack, to say nothing of his nearly debilitating self-doubt.

Despite its predictable catastrophes and somewhat shallow dialogue, the novel does not fail to hold the reader’s interest. Buffington’s characters confront personal and external struggles openly and you easily follow those various journeys to self-discovery.

Perhaps the most profound aspect of Buffington’s novel, however, is not so much the characters’ ability to answer these personal and external challenges, but instead that the novel itself challenges its readers. Upon finishing this book, I realized that Buffington had done no less than ask me if I was satisfied with this particular journey into the future. And supposing I am dissatisfied, do I have the courage to face the odds to bring about necessary change, as this particular set of characters did?

Buffington’s novel is a good addition to a summer vacation reading list; it moves quickly, remains exciting, and holds all the thrills of an espionage novel, while reminding readers of the complex and real issues with which America must grapple in this decade after September 11, 2001.

Armchair Interviews says: Intriguing summer read.