I began working on SAFEKEEPING as a knee-jerk reaction to the political rancor in the country as it reeled toward mid-term elections back in 2010. There was such a lack of civility, such a dizzying level of intolerance. Now we are past another rancorous political cycle. I hold out hope that our representatives in the legislature will remember the importance of dialogue, decency, and fair compromise and that the dystopian future I portray in the book never becomes a reality. But do I believe it is possible for our country to unravel as it does in SAFEKEEPING? I’m afraid it does not seem utterly beyond the realm of possibility.
I agree with you. So many of the things that have happened in our world were viewed as impossible, yet they played out despite people’s predictions. Though the book starts with this focus, I believe the relationships become the most important factor in the story.
My mother was a child in Nazi Germany, so I can attest not only to the harm done when a splinter party takes power, but the very fact that yes, indeed, a splinter party can take power, even with many people, including my German non-Jewish grandparents, attesting that “that idiot” could never be voted in or never take power… and then he does. Over the years I kept forgetting this lesson; I figured no one would take such idiots as Reagan, Quayle, Bush, etc., seriously, so why bother to debate their merits seriously… Anyway, thank you for an engrossing book. I think the use of the photographs is breathtakingly innovative!
Bibi, thank you for your kind and insightful comments. I would imagine you have many stories of your own to tell.