PRESS
February 5, 2005 Kirkus Review, Kirkus Discoveries
December 9, 2004 Buzzflash.com,”Author Interview: Author Turns Up Disquieting Truths, and Distruths, from 1984, 2004 and 2014“
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/12/int04060.html
November 17, 2004 Buzzflash.com, “America 2014 Destined to Become an Underground Classic: 1984 is Today”
http://www.buzzflash.com/premiums/04/11/pre04074.html
October 29, 2004 The Temple News, “Reporter-Turned-Novelist Speaks in Annenberg Hall”
October 27, 2004 The Villager “Author Sees Shades of 1984 in 2004″
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_78/newsbriefs.html
October 2004 NYC.Indymedia.org, “In America 2014, It Happens Here”
http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/126003/index.php
September 2004 Mathew Gross Political Blog
http://mathewgross.com/blog/archives/000671.html
September 2004 WordSmitten, “Invisible Shackles: The Cuffing of Free Speech” covering New York PEN event,
http://www.wordsmitten.com/2004authors_forfreespeech.htm
August 10, 2004 - The Philadelphia Tribune: “New Novel Offers Grim Look at the Future”
http://www.phila-tribune.com/081004-5-P1.htm
PRESS RELEASES
August 26, 2004 – America 2014: An Orwellian Tale Launches With Free Speech Action in New York’s Central Park
August 26, 2004 - Activists to Read from Satirically Revised “Patriotic Citizens Bill of Rights”After Massive RNC Protest
http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0826-09.htm
REVIEWS
“Blair creates a terrifying depiction of a democratic country transformed into terrorized totalitarinism. . . An apt and enthralling remake that projects such alarming realism, it’s difficult not to fear the onset of such a sinister dystopia.”
- Kirkus Discoveries
“Destined to Become An Underground Classic. . .This author has accomplished the most difficult task for a novelist: writing a sequel, with skill and verisimilitude, of another person’s work. We couldn’t put this book down. It is just too close to the truth, just a couple of turns of the screw away from what America is becoming.”
- Buzzflash.com
“This is a hell of a story, deftly-written, with a wacky, delicious sense of humor…a clever and imaginative understatement of the crazy world in which we now live.”
-Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes
“The Bush Administration’s relentless assault on civil liberties lends a haunting realism to this gripping fiction. It is a frightening tale of where this government’s erosion of our Constitution might take us if allowed to continue”
-Professor Linn Washington Jr., civil rights columnist for the Philadelphia Tribune
“Dawn Blair is the George Orwell of our day, with all of his literary and political significance. This provocative book will force us to confront the manipulative, totalitarian political tendencies in our country – namely the far-flung but perhaps not far-fetched ramifications of the policies of the extreme right-wing within the Bush administration. America 2014 will soon become must reading for anyone who wants to participate in our nation’s political discourse during this important election year. In the Orwellian tradition, Blair’s book provides a well-written, enjoyable read, replete with suspense and wit, which you will not want to put down.”
-Alan J. Gerson, New York City Council Member, Chair of the Select Committee on Lower Manhattan Redevelopment
“In America 2014 Dawn Blair creates a futuristic fable for these pivotal times. The scary part is that it’s neither very far in the future nor very farfetched. America under George O. Blush is a frightening cautionary tale of what could very well happen in a country where civil liberties have eroded and patriotic fervor is imposed by the state. This is a gutsy, imaginative, important book. Anyone who cares about the future of this country should read it.”
-Hope Edelman, author of Motherless Daughters
“I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the novel. Initially sceptical of its premise, I found myself enjoying the story, in part because the author chooses plot over polemicism, every time. It’s a good, quick pre-election read, and a self-aware homage to Orwell’s distopian masterpiece.”
-Blogger Mathew Gross, September 23, 2004 at: http://mathewgross.com/blog/archives/000671.html
“The plot is surprisingly engaging, offering a gratifying element of suspense, and the premise is deeply thought provoking. I found myself wanting to discuss this book with everyone I knew. . . America 2014 walks a thin line between visionary and paranoid, which may ultimately be a strength in the debates it has the power to provoke. While I doubt the likelihood in ten years of Predator Drones sweeping down from the sky and instantly destroying suspected ‘subversives,’ it is undeniable that the foreign policy Blair imagines is straight out of the neocon’s Plan for a New American Century. Foxy News’ propaganda-centered stranglehold on the media strikes uncomfortably close to home in this time of media consolidation and ‘embedded reporters.’ If not great literature, America 2014 is nevertheless highly readable and provocative, a call to action in the face of an administration whose assault on civil liberties, international law, and truth would make Orwell write another book. You will want to join the Resistance, before it’s too late.”
-Neela Ghoshal, October 7, 2004 at: http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/126003/index.php
“Accenting the evening’s message was the distribution of advance copies of a futuristic novel called AMERICA 2014 – AN ORWELLIAN TALE, by Dawn Blair (2004/Progressive Source Publishing). An updated version of George Orwell’s “1984,” and a political thriller, this book projects ten years into the future with a thinly disguised George Blush Administration in its fourth term. Winston Smith is a young successful producer of patriotic commercials for the Department of Homeland Security. While working to fulfill his dream of making a contemporary film version of “1984,” Smith runs afoul of government censors, is forced to stand trial in a nightmarish courtroom, and faces brutal execution in a privatized prison.
Salman Rushdie knows all too well about these dangers from first-hand experience. Following the 1989 publication of his controversial novel THE SATANIC VERSES, which criticized Islam, the award-winning writer was forced to live underground for many years after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa to all Muslims calling for his death. “There are serious reasons to say that there is a crisis in this country,” he emphasized, “of civil liberties, freedom of speech, and human rights of exactly the kind that PEN has spent over 80 years protesting about when it happens in other countries.”
-Julie Farin, WordSmitten, http://www.wordsmitten.com/2004authors_forfreespeech.htm
READER REVIEWS
“I’m left speechless after reading this book; I couldn’t put it down. Very scary but very believable as well! I enjoyed the “name connection”. Good ending – but sad, as is the situation of our Country. Everyone should read America 2014. This is truly a wake-up call.”
- Barbara Bartlett, VT
”America 2014 is a powerful statement that even a busy student can find the time to read, enjoy, and ponder.”
- Andrew Demers, PA
”The book was very readable and also very compelling. I think it is very believable, and I wouldn’t count myself as one that normally would be easily led by this sort of novel. I’d give it a B.”
- Patrick Benton, ME
”I found it to be a really interesting read. As I first starting reading it, it felt a little hamhanded, as if it went too far, but as I kept going and starting really thinking about it, I was rather disturbed at how little suspension of belief was required.”
- Jed Sorokin-Altmann, NH
“America 2014 is one of the best books I have ever read. It’s 1984 repackaged with relevance to today. Dawn Blair (a pseudonym) cleverly creates a world in which the supreme power is George O. Blush, and in which Homeland Security has become similar to the Gestapo. America 2014 poses the scary question: “What If?” What if George W. Bush continues to pass more Patriot Acts (a staple of the book, and instrumental in taking away freedoms of Americans), and what if he runs for a third term? I read this book on a recent vacation to Mexico and finished it in about four hours. It’s a smooth, great quick read. And the fabulous thing about it is how relevant it is. Everything’s not just drawn up as in a science-fiction tale, but it draws off things from the present day (i.e. the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, etc.). Coming back from my trip, I saw that several of the things mentioned in America 2014 had been implemented in America. Fingerprint readers and Cameras were now present at each U.S. Customs booth. Is the world becoming like America 2014? Let’s hope not.”
- (from Amazon.com) Daniel Smirg, CT
”I don’t usually read sci-fi or thrillers, and I especially don’t read political stuff. But for some reason I found myself picking up this curious little novel–maybe it was the ominous cover, with “AMERICA 2014″ screaming at you in huge metallic letters and the techno-fugitive illustration like some future nightmare Bladerunner world. Anyway, while the novel can sometimes get a little bit preachy (it clearly has an anti-Bush agenda), I found it surprisingly entertaining. It’s an easy read and it quite vividly lays out for you what might happen if our current leaders continue on in the direction they’re heading. Sometimes you think “This couldn’t possibly happen in our country,” but then you
read about the new security detector machines already in use at the Statue of Liberty and airports, that sniff your boarding pass and and scan your bodies, and you think… “hmmm, maybe this isn’t so farfetched after all”. Scary thought…”
- (from Amazon.com) “Casual Reader,” CA
”When I first heard about America 2014 I thought it would be another baseless Bush-basher, but as I started reading it I found myself thinking, wow, this isn’t too far off, finally someone with the balls to call a spade a spade. Listening to the lies of the Bush Administration, compounded by Kerry’s impotance makes the terrifying future of America 2014 seem all but inevatible. We are all like the frog put in a pot water that is slowly boiled to death; as the heat is slowly turned up we comfortably are lulled to sleep (death). But hey freedom isn’t our right unless we view it as our responsibility. Maybe if we and the frog knew the dark future that awaited us so long as we sat their stupiidly, we would do something about it – America 2014 shows us that future, now it is our responsibility to kick the chef (chief) out of the kitchen (whitehouse).”
- (from Amazon.com) “A Reader,” MA
”I’ve been reading political non-fiction for the past 3 months and this was an electrifying and entertaining break from such. And though it may be Orwellian in nature it still takes many of the visions of this administration and shows them for what they really are and can become. Classic literature this ain’t, but it’s a very fun read, and quite a good story (not to mention a good message).”
- (from Amazon.com) “MP818,” PA
”I recently bought the book at www.America2014.com and saved 40% – a great deal on one of the greatest books of this election season (and I got it in less than a week)!
I bought America 2014 on the advice of a friend to take a break from all the political non-fiction I’ve been reading. And though fiction, far-fetched it is not. Blair takes you on wild ride to Bush’s fantasy. The author is one of the few people with enough foresight (honesty?) to say where the current administration’s war on civil liberties is leading us all. Read it today, before it’s burned in a pile with all the other “subversive” literature.”
- (from Amazon.com) “Politico,” NYC
