What do reality TV game show contestants,
religious fanatics, true believers, atheists, zombies, quarreling siblings, an
FBI agent, Elvis impersonator, and an almost-fired English professor at a
Christian college have in common?
They all come together to interlock as
essential players in Thomas Allbaugh’s tightly wound, often hilarious, debut
novel, APOCALYPSE TV.
Shakespeare today might muse that “All the world’s
a reality TV game show, and all the men and women merely players in their quest
for prizes amid layers of illusions and media hype.” It is upon this slippery
platform that Allbaugh has built a metaphor for our contentious world as viewed
through the lenses of good vs. evil, secular religion vs. spirituality, and
love vs. indifference.
The story kicks off when Christian intellectual,
Walter Terry, takes a leave of absence from his conservative college in
California to visit his dying father in Michigan. Walter has just been put on
notice for allowing students to express non-conservative viewpoints, and fears
his job is on thin ice.
Walter and his sister are approached in a
Midwestern diner by a talent scout for a new reality TV show that claims to be
“an investigation into American religious ideas.” He describes himself to the
pretty interviewer as an “outsider in terms of religion,” but sees her write
down “soft and vulnerable.” This pigeon-holing is exactly what makes these
shows maddening, but also makes them fun for the fans.
Seduced by the promise of money and his own
rationalization that perhaps a show like this could use an educated analytical
thinker, Walter embarks on what will turn out to be a character-building
odyssey. After he is entrenched in “Race for the Apocalypse,” Walter hears the
producer refer to him as the show’s “sacrificial lamb.” And after that…all bets
are off.
APOCALYPSE TV gradually amps up its madness,
expanding reality until it pops with an outrageousness that is not quite Marx
Brothers, but a fun romp nonetheless.
Allbaugh treads a fine line between crafting a
thoughtful, moving plot with three-dimensional characters and satire. He keeps
the humor subtle and deadpan, in the vein of Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22,” while
never straying far from the book’s serious themes which examine secular
religion vs. spirituality, truth vs. fiction, loyalty vs. betrayal.
Nothing turns out to be what it seems, the
innocent must suffer, guilty baggage must be unloaded, and once a gun is
introduced, it must eventually be used in the finale (with a nod to Chekhov).
It is Allbaugh’s incredible juggling act that keeps the comedy, drama, and
religious debates lightly airborne until they come back down to Earth, not with
a bang or a whimper, but with the hard truths of Life and what it means to slog
willingly through it.
APOCALYPSE TV will appeal to open-minded
faith-based readers, as well as those who have no affiliation with a religion
or belief. It argues against the extreme notion that only members of a certain
faith are favored by God, while making a case for spiritual salvation through
love, faith, hope, service…and the willingness to persevere.
Even when the chips are down.
Title: Apocalypse TV
Author: Thomas Allbaugh
Publisher: eLectio Publishing
(Sept. 12, 2017)
ISBN: 978-1632134288 Paperback, $17.99
Amazon: Buy on Amazon
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