'Milwaukee Jihad' by Matt Flynn
The bodies fly everywhere: shot, knifed and blown up. The deaths occur from Milwaukee to Washington D.C. and some pit stops in between. The bodies, 12 of them to be exact, were all at one time Saudi Arabians. How awful! Thankfully, this action is housed in a novel for you to read and ponder.
Were their ghastly deaths a coincidence or were they because Milwaukee is the epicenter of white supremacy groups and anti-Muslim hatred? That’s what makes Matt Flynn’s latest book Milwaukee Jihad quite the read. You will be forced to think about what Flynn is suggesting.
If you worry it is all blood and guts at Colectivo Coffee don’t—sometimes the blood and guts are inside cars or the U.S. Capitol. In the vein of satirists like Jonathan Swift in A Modest Proposal, Milwaukee Jihad will make you laugh (a lot), cringe and shake your head in disbelief. But just like A Modest Proposal, the topic is extremely serious. If no one dares speak the truth or believe their lying eyes, if our valued institutions like the press and academics though tainted and manipulated by both the bright and not so bright manage to hold tremendous sway-how do you save your country when it is under attack? Milwaukeeans are good Midwesterners; we never want to believe ill of others. This attitude can be positive or fatally naïve. So, who could best figure out the demise of the Saudis?
The best recourse is call in a person of good character and a lot of brains. In this case an uncool-stereotypical-for-Milwaukee college student, Bernie Weber. He bears no resemblance to a Marvel Comic Hero. Bernie is a PhD candidate in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; he’s not just smart-he’s brilliant. His expertise is quantum encryption which Flynn does a good job of explaining just enough. Bernie previously rescued our portion of the world in Flynn’s prior book Pryme Number also set in Milwaukee. Homeland Security and the CIA know how to contact him when they need him.
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Homeland Security and the CIA are learning about a planned attack on a joint session of Congress by Saudi Arabians and that’s what sets off a frantic race to intercept and interpret encrypted messages. They call in ace evil huntress Catholic educated Audrey Knapp to reconnect with Bernie. The time bomb is ticking at the start of the book.
The characters are a great deal of the entertainment being representational of current cultural dilemmas beginning with academia. Bernie teaches part time in the math department at Milwaukee Community College where the department of victimology faculty is introduced. Meet Acting Chairman Gravesgood Beaker, a professor of indigenous public policy and colleagues Praisesong Brideprice (Renaissance Victimology) and Uri Diggleboots (Sumerian Victimology). The much vaunted Fourth Estate never encounters a situation they can’t twist, spice up or use to make a personal point. Cenk Rut of the New York Times is a case in point and the New York Law firm of Raptor and Hawk. Ian Fleming’s got nothing on Flynn when it comes to names. Too farfetched? Consider the recent dustup at Hamlin College in Minnesota where an adjunct professor was fired for showing an ancient painting of the Prophet. Hamlin’s president said this was right because “Respect for Muslim students should supersede academic freedom”.
Milwaukeeans will enjoy seeing their city from the seamy side up and understand any locale has the right to anchor a good story.
Will Bernie succeed? Can goodness and intelligence survive in our gullible America which seems to enjoy flagellation?
