A Short Film Based on Michael Neff’s New Novel Year of the Rhinoceros
by Ernie on 09/05/09 at 9:29 am
Excerpt from Year of the Rhinoceros:
The back-story of the Reagan Era.
Fed with hope, lies, and videotape campaign pledges, the kids had come from all points, from as close as Georgetown University and from as far away as American Samoa. Like Manny, their ambitions and enthusiasm were channeled into thoughts of change, productive and peaceful revolution, their backgrounds of Key Club civics and valedictorian speech demanding nothing less. Like rabid baseball fans full of stats, they chatted the nuances and quirks of government and its many personalities, and unlike the average bureaucrat or American, quoted Jefferson and Chomsky with equal skill, bragged of points scored and votes received in playful college games of Congress, and became giddy at the prospect of accidentally meeting The Gipper on a White House tour. They took the form of high school grads and college kids, nerds and quarterbacks, honor rollers and cheerleaders, Evangelicals and Humanists, young Republicans and Democrats, chess clubbers and pro wrestling fans—the most dedicated America could send. Driven and incredibly naive, they were willing to lick stamps or join in idol-worship at a moment’s notice.
Author bio:
Michael B. Neff became inspired in his early years by courageous women and men who told the truth about corruption and criminality in Washington, termed “whistle blowers” by their peers. During his 15 years working in management and budget offices during the administrations of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., and Bill Clinton, he also learned just how much the government hated these whistle blowers (and with good reason). Nevertheless, at GSA, during the early Bush years, he blew the whistle on GSA’s failed stewardship of federal advisory committees and the never-ending corporate corruption that infects the committees (e.g., the POGO report). Upon parting ways with the Washington bureaucrats, Neff and his organization of literary journals, WebdelSol.Com, worked closely with the ACLU and other plaintiffs to successfully defeat Internet censorship laws instigated by Evangelicals and the conservative right in battleground states like Michigan and Arizona. Most recently, Neff has joined others to lobby senatorial offices on Capitol Hill for greater whistle blower protections recently stripped from law by those in Congress anxious to avoid scrutiny.
In his more “peaceful” life, Michael Neff divides his time being a writer, editor, artist, filmmaker, and Internet entrepreneur best known over the past decade for his creation and direction of WebdelSol.Com, a popular Internet publisher and community portal for scores of journals, indie presses, filmmakers, poets, and writers. Since 1994, WDS.Com has served content to millions of readers worldwide, and links lead to WDS.Com content from over 40,000 other websites. WebdelSol.Com and Neff have been featured or reviewed in everything from Chronicle of Higher Education to Poets and Writers to the New York Times.
In 2003, Michael Neff founded and directed the Algonkian Writer Conferences on the shores of the Potomac River in Virginia. Since that time, the organization has expanded to include events and conferences around the country such as the NYC Pitch and Shop and the Fisherman’s Wharf Writer Conference in San Francisco.
Michael Neff’s debut novel is a stunning performance—a book that puts me in mind of Mark Twain after a ten year prison term locked in a cell with Laurence Sterne. – Robert Bausch, author
“Year of The Rhinoceros” is a compelling, utterly original novel that savagely and hilariously explores what went wrong in this country a couple of decades ago, and that keeps going wrong even now. Neff is a raucous new voice in American literature. – Robert Olen Butler, author and Pulitzer Prize winner
“Year of The Rhinoceros” accurately portrays an important period in American political history wherein the struggle for democracy took a wrong turn—one we’ve yet to come out of. In this current era of revisionism and injustice, the truth needs to be told. -Thomas Devine, Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
