''Commonwealth'' is the third full novel written by the American author
Joey Goebel
Adam Joseph Goebel III (born 2 September 1980) is an American author, whose work centers around the peculiarities of culture in Middle America. He was raised in Henderson, Kentucky, a small town on the Ohio River across from Evansville, India ...
.
Plot summary
Somewhere in the middle of America dwells Blue Gene Mapother, a trashy,
mullet-headed
Wal-Mart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
stockboy-turned-
flea market
A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously-owned (second-hand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' ...
er who staunchly supports any American
war effort
In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative size ...
without question. Besides
patriotism
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
, little enlivens him besides
pro wrestling
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...
, cigarette breaks, and any instance in which he thinks his masculinity is at stake. Curiously, he is also a member of one of the wealthiest families in the country.
His mother, the fanatical Christian
socialite
A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...
Elizabeth Mapother, has a prophetic dream in which she sees Blue Gene’s older brother, the handsome but nervous John Hurstbourne Mapother, becoming an
apocalyptic world savior. In order to fulfill his mother’s prophecy—not to mention his father Henry’s lifelong desire for his bloodline to ascend to
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
—John is running for
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
.
John soon finds that as a corporate executive he is not popular with his largely working-class constituents, many of whom work for him and his father. Now, after years of estrangement, the Mapothers need Blue Gene’s common man touch in order to cast their family name in a more favorable light with the voters. The Mapothers no longer shun Blue Gene for his embarrassing, low-class ways; they embrace him as political gold.
Will Blue Gene allow himself to be used? His family has ignored him the last four years and has only invited him back into the fold as campaign time looms near. But then again, even though the superrich John Hurstbourne Mapother clearly represents the interests of big business, man, he sure does have all the right values.
Through dark humor and cinematic story-telling, this small-town epic goes from a flea market to mansions to abandoned Wal-Mart buildings, dramatizing the deranged, absurd relationship between the high and low class of America.
Characters in ''Commonwealth''
;Blue Gene Mapother: The protagonist of this novel, Blue Gene is the younger son of Henry and Elizabeth Mapother. Born into money, Blue Gene has decided to live a life sans luxury, selling his childhood toys at a flea market.
;John Mapother: The older brother to Blue Gene, father of Arthur, and oldest son of Henry and Elizabeth Mapother, serves as a lifelong foil for Blue Gene, being the older, perfect son running for a seat in the House of Representatives.
;Arthur Mapother: The only son of John and Abby Mapother.
;Henry Mapother: The patriarch of the Mapother clan, also, he serves as the driving force behind John's campaign, and the wedge driven between John and Eugene.
;Elizabeth Mapother:
;Abby Mapother:
;Joshua Balsam:
;Jackie Stepchild:
See also
*''
The Anomalies
''The Anomalies'', published as ''The Freaks'' outside of the US, is a novel by Joey Goebel published in 2003.
Plot summary
In a small town in Kentucky, five outsiders have come together: an eighty-year-old woman who walks around in cowboy boot ...
'' (2003)
*''
Torture the Artist'' (2004)
References
{{reflist
External links
Official site of Joey GoebelCommonwealth's MySpace Page
2008 American novels
MacAdam/Cage books