David Baldacci’s thriller novels might appear to be the least-serious sort of fiction. They share shelf space at the grocery store and Wal-Mart with other apparently escapist “beach novels” or “airport novels;” they feature complicated plots, improbable action sequences, and other credulity-straining devices. The heroes always win in the end, often with seconds to spare. Their dramatic events are set in motion, though, by social and cultural forces that are the subjects of serious news and policy consideration: the war on terror, national security, public officials who turn corrupt, economic struggles and their consequences in the Rust Belt and various rural areas, and in the novel quoted in the paper title, human trafficking. I will offer an overview of how these admittedly formulaic but maybe-not-so-silly novels have plots driven by real social issues. I will then pursue a two-pronged argument about how Baldacci is doing more than pumping out lightweight bestsellers. His novels are the very definition of mainstream popular culture, so his treatment of and characters’ reflections on these kinds of issues opens a space for that reflection for readers from varied social backgrounds. Further, they suggest to the observant reader that if the only chance for ordinary people and communities to succeed in the face of these issues lies in the improbable actions of cartoon-like action heroes, our social problems may be more serious than we want to realize and harder to address than we may wish to believe.
About the presenterAbigail L. Sloan
Associate Professor of English, Blue Ridge Community College Research Interests: Shakespearean and non-Shakespearean drama and poetry, Edmund Spenser, Stephen King