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Writing the American Dream - An interview with novelist Mike Palecek |
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Written by Mickey Z
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Thursday, 04 January 2007 09:57 |
by Mickey Z.
 I read Mike Palecek's latest novel, "The American Dream," as I traveled to
visit family. The experience of enduring both airport security (sic) and the
sanitized airplane environment served an appropriately eerie backdrop for a
book like this. No more than a few degrees from what currently passes for
reality, "The American Dream" is a societal vision that hits too close to
home(land) to be called a futuristic satire. Channeling both Orwell and Bill
Hicks (with perhaps a touch of Chuck Palahniuk), Palecek has created more
than a powerful and engaging novel; he has let loose a global wake-up call.
At first glance, Palecek hardly fits the "global wake-up call" profile. "I
started out what some might call a good American," he says. "I grew up in
Norfolk, Nebraska, home of Johnny Carson, watching his show on TV, playing
football, baseball, driving a '56 Chevy station wagon." From there,
Palecek's restlessness led him to a monastery in Oregon, the diocesan
seminary for the archdiocese of Omaha in Saint Paul, a life-changing meeting
with Fr. Dan Berrigan, and getting arrested at Offutt Air Force Base,
outside of Omaha.
"It was maybe 1980 or '81," Palacek says of his first arrest. "I remember it
raining. I sat down and cried. It was just this overwhelming feeling that I
wasn't part of America anymore and even though I had to do it, I was going
to miss it."
I interviewed Mike via e-mail during the first week of January 2007. |
