Presidential politics and war-game computers in NH-set novel

By Anne Tremblay
HippoPress.com

"Big If," by Mark Costello, W.W. Norton & Company, 2002, 315 pages

"Big If," by Mark Costello, is one. This novel is for you... if you are interested in the behind-the-scenes horse and pony show workings of political campaigns; if you don't mind a detailed explanation of computer programming in "If, then" statements; if you enjoy a well detailed accounting of sadly dysfunctional and disconnected people's lives; if (and this is a smaller one) you have any interest in inner workings of online war games.

The title comes from the name of the fictional war game company, "Big If." I am not certain why the book is named after the company unless, as with some pop music, the title was something peripheral to the story that would make people wonder. It is a catchy title.

In defense of the author, I've never had much interest in politics or computer programming, and war games turn me off. Despite this, he managed to engage my paltry attention span to carry me through to the end. I was rooting for these people. I wanted them to pull together and find happiness.

Vi Asplund, a new bodyguard for the vice president in his campaign for the presidency, links the two main storylines. Much of the story revolves around the bodyguards' harrowing lives on and off the campaign trail.

Vi's brother works for Big If as one of their founding programmers, but he's struggling with the direction the company is taking. Their online war game is ready to either go public or collapse. It takes more than half the novel before Big If surfaces as a plotline, and it's not until the final chapter that the link to the campaign is clear. The collision of these two stories sets off the make-or-break moment for the protection team. We are poised for the big payoff, but Costello coolly splashes reality on our struggling heroes. "Big If" ends not with a bang but with a sigh.

The publishers described "Big If" as a "funny, unsettling novel, a riff on recent history." Unsettling is dead-on. Funny? Well, there were a few quick out-loud laughs, but don't read this if you are in need of comedy. In light of the last presidential election, it is a fascinating depiction of "life behind the lines" for the people who guard high-ranking officials. The events in set New Hampshire give it a nice familiar feel, and it is interesting to "see" all the planning and finagling that goes on in staging a run for the Oval Office.

"Big If" is an amble through smoke and mirrors with people you could almost like, if you had enough Prozac to last the ride.

ostello's characters are believable and sadly realistic. These people tread murky waters where they could have to give their lives at any moment. They must be on constant alert yet detached on duty, and struggle to connect in their personal lives with their families and each other. As a result, they feel as dysfunctional as a soap opera plaything without the glitz, glitter or occasional uplifting success.

Costello's style carries you along. I wanted to know what was going to happen, I just wanted to get there faster. His use of long sentences with five to 10 asides alternately enchanted and annoyed me, though I give him credit for his skillful use of commas and parentheses. When it worked, it gave the impression of a knowing gossip, tossing in useful and interesting background. When it didn't, my mind got tired wading through it all. Once the introductions were done, it picked up speed.

At times I felt bogged down by details I wasn't sure I needed. Does it matter if I know the retired schoolteacher volunteer from Texas lost her husband to cancer? Did I need to see the histrionics of an insecure and overly pampered wife clinging to her realtor? But maybe this is what makes Costello's book seem true to life. Those little details we get, the odds and ends that don't fit, don't add much to our lives but do fill our minds. Reality trudges doggedly on. "Big If" shows this and doesn't dress it up in happy little endings. It deftly captures the slow disintegration, the nagging questions that echo in these people's lives.

There is much to appreciate in this novel. Just don't pick it up on a low day.

Mark Costello, a native of the Boston area, wrote his first novel "Bag Men" under the pseudonym of John Flood.

Anne Tremblay can be reached at hippo@hippopress.com