An Inconvenient Terrorist by Stephen R. Bailey

An Inconvenient Terrorist, Stephen R. Bailey.  self-published, 2009.  e-book, 423 pps.


An Inconvenient Terrorist takes place in Australia, although with trepidation I quickly realized that this story could have just as easily been told in the United States.  The thing is, Stephen R. Bailey has written a fiction.  The fiction seems believable to me precisely because of our political climate these days.  This could happen to any one of us.  And perhaps already has.

There is a guy and his wife.  They are Muslims, born and raised in Oz.  They have a restaurant.  There are some drunken kids.  One of them accuses the fellow of being a terrorist.  

There is also a Prime Minister singularly lacking in common sense.  He is running on fear and on his dad's name.  Laws are passed.  The laws don't strike me as very different from some of the laws that we now have over here.

There is an arrest.  There are disaffected Muslim youth.  There is a contingent of flaming gayfolk that get involved.  Because folks who are oppressed for being who they are wind up better off being out rather than hiding.  The politicos and the military types and the perps count on shame and silence to keep people under.

The folks in this book are anything but quiet.  At some point, each of them has had to make a life-altering decision. 

sapphoq reviews says: Some of the book was funny.  Some of it was scarey.  All of it was delightful and certainly deserves more attention than it has been getting.  An Inconvenient Terrorist is bound to appeal to folks who like Cory Doctorow, Chuck Palahniuk, and Veronica Roth.  Highly recommended.