"No man is one man."
Two industrial giants conspire to change the future. An unlikely American teenager, ground down in the wheels of an increasingly totalitarian system, discovers a mysterious force that can unlock the chains encircling the world. The choices he makes will determine the fate of humanity, forever.
In this sprawling novel that cuts a cross-section of the American pie wide open, a multi-generational mystery crosses class, race, and political lines to reveal a portrait in mosaic of American life—today, and tomorrow.
Read ESCAPING AMERICA today.
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He is coming to smash this machine. He won’t be programmed; he thinks. He won’t be pushed; he reaches.
But from the ocean comes an army of red-eyed crabs crawling out of the foam, dressed like rock stars and politicians, teachers and priests, doctors and philosophers, sociologists and critics, artists and actors, reporters and lawyers, writers and housewives, geniuses and thugs, in a long picket line waving the same sign: “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?”
The horses scream, their nostrils snorting and eyes bulging as the army marches over their arching backs and down the reins to the Man’s arms and climbs over the chariot and up the Man’s legs, carrying needles, electrodes, test-tubes, microscopes, computers, chains, tape, hammers, saws, pencils, guns, badges, robots, instruction manuals, bibles, diagrams and manifestos. “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” say their T-shirts as they put a yoke on His shoulders, strap down His ankles, tap into His spine, drain DNA from His brain, and plug wires in His temples. They tie the reins to His wrists and His feet and drive His horses in different directions as He lifts His head one last time, crying thunder into the sky. And as His arms and legs pull from their sockets, the little people point out His helplessness. And as they rip His heart out, they criticize His heartlessness. And as they gouge out His eyes, they denounce His blindness. And as they steal His brain, they condemn His ignorance. And as they take His life they sneer at His dying. They laugh, pointing as the giant sinks in the crimson sea, and they all wave the same sign over their heads: “WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE?”
And the crab-people gather together his dead parts and try to use His arms to reach, His legs to walk, His heart to love, His brain to think, and His eyes to see. They think that altogether they are the giant now, and that the man could not exist without them. But all of them don’t add up to a single human being.
