What could one hope for from this novel, which already bears the hope in the title? "Hope Never Dies" - reminiscent of the optimistic campaign slogan Barack Obama as well as the always cryptic-lurid titles of James Bond films. On the comic cover are two men in action pose to see, which is undoubtedly the most popular or hated politicians ever politician duo Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
What could one hope for from a thriller that, in the form of fan-fiction, makes two figures of contemporary history one of the most unlikely heroes in a drug mystery?
It was written by an author, in whose literary Vita there are a number of obscurities, including a meaningless parody of the already ridiculous Sadomasomärchen "50 Shades of Gray", which also carries even the cross-stupid title "Fifty Shames of Earl Gray" , as well as a humorous guide to the survival of non-existent natural phenomena such as the "Sharknados" known from the eponymous film series, where sharks rain from the sky.
So what could one hope for from Andrew Shafer's "Hope Never Dies"? Or better: did one have to fear the worst?
Who now expects a crazy thrill-gag spectacle in the style of the "Naked Cannon" movies, will be disappointed. First of all, "Hope Never Dies" - already published in the US in July 2018 - is a straightforward narrative thriller, then a buddy comedy and not least a document of political decline. And the novel works surprisingly well on all three levels.
Opioid crisis in Biden's home
The crime leads Biden and Obama into the midst of the opioid crisis - there have been around 400,000 deaths in the US over the past two decades. Wilmington, Delaware, which owns more than half of Fortune 500 companies, is also affected. In parts of the 70,000-inhabitant town, home to Joe Biden for half a century, gang crime and drug trafficking are out of control.
Biden gets caught between the fronts of the war on drugs when he tries to solve a mysterious death: A longtime acquaintance was run over by a train and had his pockets full of heroin, even though he did not even drink alcohol. Biden gets hit by a murderous motorcycle gang and corrupt cops, he is beaten and threatened with firearms. Good that he can always count on Obama's help.
Shaffer tells his story routinely, with a sure sense for speed and tension. But above all, it serves to revive the Bromance between Biden and Obama. "Hope Never Dies" lives from the nimbus of these two sympathy characters, which sets Shaffer in the style of TV comedies like the current Netflix series "The Kominsky Method" in scene. With pointed dialogues and a hint of old age melancholy.
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Shaffer, Andrew
Hope Never Dies: A Case for Obama and Biden. detective novel
Publishing company:
Droemer TB
Pages:
320
Price:
14,99 €
Translated by:
Eva Bonné
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Shafer's novel is also a wistful reminiscence of eight years that gave hope to people in the US without translating that time. In one of the most beautiful dialogues, Biden asks if they have achieved anything that might have made the world a little better. And Obama answers, "I do not know, Joe, I just do not know."
The novel ends with a pointe: Joe Biden will save the freedom medal that Obama gave him during the last days of their joint term in a shootout. Perhaps the most touching moment of their collaboration, when the outgoing US Vice President burst into tears in front of running cameras and finds dozens of memes on the Internet.
The moment Joe Biden found out he's presiding over the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama https://t.co/NvTixUShNi pic.twitter.com/ywloAkle6R
- CNN (@CNN) January 12, 2017Meanwhile, as Shaffer Biden summed up, chaos prevails in the White House, the current government is "the systematic decomposition of the country". However, the name that stands for it never falls in "Hope Never Dies". Shaffer wrote a novel about Donald Trump in 2016. "The Day of the Donald" is a satire on Trump's then considered unrealistic election victory. A vision of horror that has long been superseded by reality.
The hope never dies? Perhaps. But with nearly three years of Trump lunacy and the current developments in the impeachment process, more and more people are losing faith that it will get better in the near future. Shafer's Bromance thriller can only be a small consolation, a well-intentioned gesture that fizzles away in the daily political roar. However, Shaffer is not discouraged, with a sequel already released in the US: "Hope Rides Again".