Author Lisa Brackmann mentioned recently how puzzled she was that more reviewers hadn't commented on the political content of her book. Though the characters are fictional, Rock Paper Tiger grapples with the Iraq war and the abuse of corporate power. Yet most reviews focus on Ellie, the protagonist, and completely ignore the larger political picture.

I don't think this is a failure, either on the part of reviewers or the author's ability to communicate. Quite the opposite - it's evidence of Lisa's superb storytelling skills, and the power of fiction to transcend political barriers.

Take me, for example. I'm a conservative Republican turned Libertarian. This is just my guess, but I'm pretty sure Lisa stands on the far left of the political spectrum. Lisa's book clearly deals with politics; in my own review, I noted that the end of Rock Paper Tiger was a little too didactic for my tastes. But regardless of my political stance, I think it's a fantastic novel and I gave it an unequivocal five stars.

Another favorite author that comes to mind is China Mieville - a Marxist. Occasionally I'll read some of his political or social commentary, and, frankly, I think he's a complete loon. But his fiction? Sublime.

These two examples perfectly illustrate the unifying power of fiction.

If Lisa had taken it upon herself to write a book about her political views, I doubt I'd even have picked it up. But Rock Paper Tiger isn't about Lisa's political views. It's about a young woman named Ellie coming to terms with past sins. Do politics enter into the story? Yes; but everything is filtered through the lens of Ellie's experience and personality. This is about how Ellie sees the world, how she deals with the greater forces at play. Ultimately she comes to her own conclusions and acts on them.

The key here is that there's nothing in the book that requires me to agree with Ellie. Sure, a narrator in a poorly written novel might be more intrusive or proscriptive, but Lisa's writing is so finely tuned that we're seeing the world completely through Ellie's eyes. And there's no arguing with a single personal experience, so long as it rings true to character. I believed that Ellie, having had the experiences and making the decisions she did, saw the world in this fashion. Her beliefs were her own; not a threat to mine.

One might ask, then, what point there was in Lisa's use of politics. While Ellie's beliefs do not threaten mine in any hostile fashion, they do invite me to reexamine issues in a thoughtful way. It's not so much a debate as an opportunity for discussion. Rather than "Big powerful corporations are evil!" it's "Hey, these are Ellie's thoughts about powerful corporations. What are yours?"

By nature, politics must generalize. In an attempt to tackle larger societal issues, we group diverse individuals under single banners in an attempt to accomplish that which we could not do alone. Fiction, however, narrows the focus back to the individual. Reading a novel is like sitting down to have tea with an interesting person and finding out what really matters to them. Political views may be a part of who they are, but this is not a confrontation. Fiction is a conversation.
Ultimately, I think fiction is a much more powerful tool for persuasion than mere dialectics. We're rarely swayed by a rousing political speech or a pamphlet on our doorstep. People change people. Individuals sincerely engaging with one another without any ulterior motives. And fiction is about people.

Politics are divisive. Fiction unites.

Rock Paper Tiger by Lisa Brackmann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars