Taft 2012: A Novel

Taft 2012: A Novel
by Jason Heller Main Level New Book - Heller

First a quick fact check. In the real world, William Howard Taft lost the Presidency to Woodrow Wilson and left the White House in 1913. He taught at Yale law school until 1921, when he became the first former President to become a Justice on the Supreme Court. He served as Chief Justice from 1921 until shortly before his death in 1930.

In Jason Heller's fanciful Taft 2012: A Novel Taft inexplicably disappears from the White House lawn on the day of Wilson's inauguration and reappears in 2011, disrupting an Obama press conference and getting himself wounded by a secret serviceman. Once he recovers and has his identity scientifically verified Taft begins discovering what he missed during his century's absence. Entranced by all the new technology (How DO they get the cream inside these Twinkies?) but appalled at the state of the country, Taft lets himself get talked into an independent bid for the 2012 Presidential election alongside his Congresswoman great-granddaughter.

Heller intersperses his main text with "tweets" and "television commentary" from fans, enemies, and journalists that serve as commentary on the reaction to Taft's return and struggle with modern political lunacy. Given that we are now in the midst of that lunacy, this entertaining reminder that things weren't always this way provides some much-needed perspective.