Natasha Patel’s BATTLEGROUND STATE is not really a political satire, nor is it necessarily supposed to be a revealing, tell-all account of what it’s like to work on a political campaign. Instead, it’s a funny, light, and slightly inspiring work of fiction, written by a former Obama ’08 staffer.
Lily DeMarco is 30 and living with her parents in New Jersey, recently fired from a law firm and now collecting unemployment. On a lark she decides to apply to work for the presidential campaign of Ramal Cady, the would-be first black president (all politicians here are fictional, or rather, fictionalized.) Before she can even have second thoughts, they hire her as a regional director, and make her pack her bags and move to Georgia. Lily ends up being a fish out of water in Georgia for a while, but she makes her way, struggling against prejudice, the ridiculous institutions of the American political process, and her own superiors’ apathy, when it comes to her position in rural Georgia. Her position is nearly hopeless, she soon realizes, but she’s going to try her hardest to win the nearly-unwinnable state of Georgia anyway, because she now truly believes.
Her belief, in the American people and in the equality of all, ends up being the philosophical and spiritual backbone of the book, though it’s also worth noting that BATTLEGROUND STATE is also quite funny. It’s filled with a very dry, sardonic wit. The interactions between Lily and her best friend Gabe, who now lives on a farm for some reason, are priceless: “Shouldn’t you be tilling the land?” she snaps at him at one point. The dialogue in general is clever, and the characters are fairly entertaining. If there’s anything wrong with the book at all, it’s that it’s not long enough. Not enough time is spent with these people and this election, and the characters don’t really go through enough trials and tribulations before the final, devastating one that takes up the last few chapters of the book. Still, the character of Lily DeMarco is a great unlikely sort of hero: simultaneously average and extraordinary, relatable and unique, struggling to remain relevant even though the world seems intent on passing her by.
BATTLEGROUND STATE is funny when it needs to be funny and inspirational when it needs to be inspirational: it captures the 2008 election and what made it so special and interesting, while also being its own (very silly) story.
Reviewed by Charles Baker for IndieReader.