The Faking of the President: Nineteen Stories of White House Noir

by Peter Carlaftes (Editor), Gary Phillips (Contribution by), Alison Gaylin (Contribution by)

Overview

***Editor's Choice, NEW YORK TIMES*** A literary coup d'etat, that ponders "What would the White House be like if U.S. Presidents of the past were not restricted by the time-honored hallmarks and traditional behavior of the office, leaving them free to do whatever they wanted, anytime and anywhere?" THE FAKING OF THE PRESIDENT: Nineteen Stories of White House Noir pulls back the curtain on the “new norm” for America’s highest office, with a collection of bizarre new stories by a diverse group of renowned authors that take readers across the chasm of reality into an alternate universe—where Nixon takes a wacky psychedelic trip with Elvis Presley; where a time-traveling renegade targets members of the George Bush administration with disastrous results; where a spy seizes a sudden opportunity for power after Woodrow Wilson’s stroke. The stories are outlandish but—when it comes to the White House of today—no longer implausible.

The line-up of award-winning authors includes Eric Beetner, Peter Carlaftes, Sarah M. Chen, Angel Luis Colón, S. A. Cosby, Nikki Dolson, Mary Anna Evans, Adam Lance Garcia, Danny Gardner, Alison Gaylin, Christopher Chambers, Kate Flora, Greg Herren, Gary Phillips, Alex Segura, Travis Richardson, S. J. Rozan, Abby Vandiver, and Erica Wright.

In an era where the bar for what is acceptable has shifted beyond what the founding fathers ever imagined, THE FAKING OF THE PRESIDENT is a highly recommended unique creative act of resistance, and a must-have for fans of politics, noir, and speculative fiction. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941110898
Publisher:	Three Rooms Press
Publication date:	04/21/2020
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,021,715
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

PETER CARLAFTES a New York-based editor and author. He is editor of three short story collections in the Have a NYC noir series, and published four other mystery/noir collections including the Anthony Award-winning anthology The Obama Inheritance: 15 Stories of Conspiracy Noir. He is also author of two poetry collections and two play collections. He is co-director of Three Rooms Press. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Foreword By Peter Carlaftes
Burning Love By Alison Gaylin
Is This Tomorrow? By Angel Luis Colón
Y2 Effin’ K By Gary Phillips
Article 77 By Eric Beetner
All Big Men Are Dreamers By Mary Anna Evans
Reckless Disregard By Abby L. Vandiver
999 Points Of Light By S. A. Cosby
The Dreadful Scott Decision By Greg Herren
The Great Compromise Of 1901 By Erica Wright
The Madison Conspiracy: Dolley Madison’s Zinger By Christopher Chambers
Long Live Long By Kate Flora
Mother Of Exiles By S. J. Rozan
Services Rendered By Nikki Dolson
In Mother We Trust By Sarah M. Chen
Andrew Jackson Beats Death By Adam Lance Garcia
Old Pharaoh By Danny Gardner
The Camelot Complex By Alex Segura
The Event That Didn’t Happen By Travis Richardson
But One Life To Give By Peter Carlaftes
About The Contributors

Editorial Reviews

02/17/2020

Many of the 19 speculative stories in this highly entertaining anthology show U.S. presidents behaving badly, some with the same impunity as the current occupant of the White House. Lighter selections include Alyson Gaylin’s “Burning Love,” which reveals the dark outcome of a secret love affair between Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley; Gary Phillips’s “Y2 Effin’ K,” a clever action piece in which Bill Clinton and his secret teenage African-American love child foil a Russian plot on the streets of L.A.; and Eric Beetner’s “Article 77,” in which the 2000 election stand-off is decided by a fist fight between Laura Bush and Tipper Gore. And then there are the talking squirrels infesting the Eisenhower White House in Angel Luis Colón’s “Is This Tomorrow?” In a more serious vein, S.J. Rozan’s “Mother of Exiles” has Eleanor Roosevelt maneuver her husband into ending immigration restrictions to allow entry for refugees from Nazi Europe, while in Danny Gardner’s unsettling “Old Pharaoh,” the ghosts of slave children killed following the Underground Railroad save Abraham Lincoln from a kidnapping. Fans of alternate history will have fun. This is the perfect diversion for those seeking a break from the more serious aspects of the election season. (Apr.)Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly stated the title of the story "Old Pharaoh."

Publishers Weekly

***Editor's Choice, NEW YORK TIMES*** “The stories put arrows in the red ... [with] “Manchurian Candidate”-style Cold War paranoia ... exploitation ... actual history [and] first ladies who are the power behind the throne. ... The actual present is left until last, when [editor] Carlaftes himself appears for an audacious final story.” —The New York Times

"One of the strangest, most exhilarating rides you’ll take in noir this year...Editor Peter Carlaftes brings together a talented group of contemporary noir luminaries, each author offering a unique vision of executive excess and intrigue." —CrimeReads

“The Faking of the President is equal parts historical and hysterical. The assemblage of authors is uniformly talented. They each start with as many real facts as are necessary and then, unconstrained by anything except their imaginations, produce delightful riffs on reality. They are fake news.” —NY Journal of Books

"Many of the 19 speculative stories in this highly entertaining anthology show U.S. presidents behaving badly, some with the same impunity as the current occupant of the White House. ... Fans of alternate history will have fun. This is the perfect diversion for those seeking a break from the more serious aspects of the election season." —Publishers Weekly

“In many ways, the collection is a lot of fun. There’s a schadenfreude aspect to some of it . . . The Faking of the President offers a comical and twisted version of our history.” —Portland Book Review

“The Faking of the President is a terrific burning barn of a book. Focused on the potential realities in past American presidencies (and a future glimpse) and written by 19 talented mystery writers who really know their American history, these great fictional takes on what could have happened, might have happened, and didn’t happen are really deep-dive marvels and often breathtaking wonders to take in. Then the real mind-bending occurs when you are inspired by the stories in The Faking of the President to imagine what directions we might have instead taken, and often tragically did not, particularly in the continuing saga of the most genetically twisted presidency we’ve yet experienced.” —Hot Indie News

"The Faking of the President is a wild, rollicking ride through the corridors of power both past and present. These stories are dark, humorous and thoughtful; they take the presidency and its environs and turn it into a fun house of noirish story-telling. Get this book and read it during the presidential campaign to help keep your head on straight." —T.J. English, New York Times Best Selling author of Havana Nocturne and The Westies

“Whether burrowing into archival gaps, forging extraordinary connections between pivotal milestones, or conjuring up wild (and wildly entertaining!) alternative histories, these slyly subversive what-ifs and cutting critiques hit their marks on presidencies past and present.” —Art Taylor, Edgar Award-winning author of The Boy Detective and the Summer of ’74

From the Publisher