The Orange Man

Fed up with Trump-filled news but unable to keep yourself from reading / watching it?

’The Orange Man’ is a satire about what happens when big business and government come together, when truth and facts seem to disappear and the loudest voices in the echo chambers seem to be winning. It features Tom Bone, someone orange and very like Trump, but not Trump. I hate to tell you, Donald - it’s about much more than you.

It’s funny, serious and gripping all at the same time (so reviews tell me) - a good antidote to the daily news cycle. Crucially, by the end of the book, its protagonist Gus has started to chart a way back to sanity. Read on for more.

＂People say satire is dead. It’s not dead; it’s alive and living in the White House.＂

Robin Williams made this quip long before Trump’s second term. The Orange Man, launched on the first anniversary of Trump’s victory, was written during the election campaign leading up to it, when few liberals believed Trump would be returned to the West Wing for the second time.

He was. But The Orange Man is much more than a satire on Trump and modern-day America. It explores the febrile and increasingly online world of competing echo chambers everywhere, where truth belongs to the loudest shouters, where big business pulls the strings and manipulation is all too easy. By turns discomforting and funny, it challenges us all to stop handwringing and to start paying more attention to social dislocation and the ease with which it can be exploited for power.

Here’s the blurb:

Like a modern-day Dr Frankenstein, Gus secretly creates online influencers. There’s GoneSolo the daring rooftopper, CaryMary the pouting do-gooder and even a podcast, See Both Sides, pitching together anonymous celebrities with diametrically opposed views to find common ground. When, as an experiment, this time with his friends, he creates Tom Bone, The Orange Man, they have no idea of the monster they have created. The more repugnant they try to make him, the more followers he gets. To kill him off, they announce his intention to run for President. Surely no one will take him seriously? But Chuck Attar, a billionaire with a shadowy agenda and bottomless pockets has other ideas. What started as an online jape becomes a flesh and blood struggle, threatening Gus’ family, friends, democracy and truth itself. A dark, bitingly funny satire meets psychological thriller, The Orange Man will leave you questioning whether anything you believe is real and what to do about it.

If you like the satire of Dave Eggers, the social commentary of Lionel Shriver or Andrew O’Hagan, or the dystopian vision of Margaret Atwood, you will like The Orange Man.

Outside of the literary world, do you like what the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom is doing?

＂We put a mirror up to Trump and the absurdity of what is going on in this country.＂
Gavin Newsom on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

If you do, you’ll love The Orange Man.

Do you agree with Ed Davey, leader of the UK Liberal Democrats party when he says:

＂We cannot leave it to the Musks and Zuckerbergs of this world to set the bounds of free speech for billions of people around the world. We cannot leave it to them to control the flow of information - and misinformation - to so many voters, in so many democracies.＂

If you do, you’ll love The Orange Man.

In its Epilogue, The Orange Man offers hope as Gus starts to piece together a movement, Melior, aimed at reestablishing the sanctity of facts and truth, and at giving people a sense of purpose in an increasingly baffling world.

Read The Orange Man. React and help flesh out Melior!

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