Author | Leon Uris |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Published | 1999 (HarperCollins) |
Media type | Print (hardcover) & Paperback |
Pages | 496 pp |
ISBN | 0-06-018377-2 |
OCLC | 40668126 |
813/.54 21 | |
LC Class | PS3541.R46 G63 1999 |
A God in Ruins is a 1999 novel by Leon Uris.
Set between the 1940s and 2008, the book follows the life of Quinn Patrick O'Connell, the fictional Democratic candidate for the 2008 United States Presidency, his family, and the life of his opponent, Thornton Tomtree. The book climaxes with the election campaign and its results.
Quinn Patrick O'Connell was detached from his parents at the age of one and adopted by the Irish O'Connell family at the age of three. He has lived in a ranch in Colorado and studied in the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He went on to become a Colorado state senator, and later Governor of Colorado, gun control being his main platform.
During this time he has had two relationships, with Greer Little and Rita Maldonado. Both women lead him through his election campaign and set him up for the 2008 presidency.
Throughout his life, Quinn wishes to find his birth parents, but is unable to do so as even his adopted parents have no information whatsoever. He is found by his brother, a Jewish policeman, and confronts the nation before the 2008 elections, setting off Kristallnacht-like riots throughout the country.
Having served on an elite unit called RAM in the Marine Corps, eventually with the rank of Marine Gunner, O'Connell is known for his honesty and high moral principles – a trait which goes a long way to help him in his election campaign.
Thornton "T3" Tomtree is a technological genius who invents an apparently unhackable computer named "The Bulldog". While good with technology, he is portrayed as an insincere politician, who is mainly in it for power and influence. His political career is led by a childhood friend, Darnell Jefferson, in the novel the first African-American billionaire.
Sliders is an American science fiction and fantasy television series created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé. It was broadcast for five seasons between 1995 and 2000. The series follows a group of travelers as they use a wormhole to "slide" between different parallel universes. Tracy Tormé, Robert K. Weiss, Leslie Belzberg, John Landis, David Peckinpah, Bill Dial and Alan Barnette served as executive producers at different times of the production. For its first two seasons, it was produced in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was filmed primarily in Los Angeles, California, in the last three seasons.
John Mitchel was an Irish nationalist writer and journalist chiefly renowned for his indictment of British policy in Ireland during the years of the Great Famine. Concluding that, in Ireland, legal and constitutional agitation was a "delusion", Mitchel broke first with Daniel O'Connell's Repeal Association and then with his Young Ireland colleagues at the paper The Nation. In 1848, as editor of his own journal, United Irishman, he was convicted of seditious libel and sentenced to 14-years penal transportation for advocating James Fintan Lalor's programme of co-ordinated resistance to landlords and to the continued shipment of harvests to England.
James Albert Michener was an American writer. He wrote more than 40 books, most of which were long, fictional family sagas covering the lives of many generations, set in particular geographic locales and incorporating detailed history. Many of his works were bestsellers and were chosen by the Book of the Month Club. He was also known for the meticulous research that went into his books.
Lester Neil Smith III, better known as L. Neil Smith, was an American libertarian science fiction author and political activist. His works include the trilogy of Lando Calrissian novels, all published in 1983: Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon, and Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka. He also wrote the novels Pallas, The Forge of the Elders, and The Probability Broach, each of which won the Libertarian Futurist Society's annual Prometheus Award for best libertarian science fiction novel. In 2016, Smith received a Special Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Libertarian Futurist Society.
Mary Geneva "Mamie" Eisenhower was the first lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961 as the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Born in Boone, Iowa, she was raised in a wealthy household in Colorado. She married Eisenhower, then a lieutenant in the United States Army, in 1916. She kept house and served as hostess for military officers as they moved between various postings in the United States, Panama, the Philippines, and France. Their relationship was complicated by his regular absences on duty and by the death of their firstborn son at the age of three. She became a prominent figure during World War II as General Eisenhower's wife.
Rod Blagojevich, often referred to by his nickname "Blago", is an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. He was impeached, removed from office, convicted, and incarcerated for eight years on federal charges of public corruption. A member of the Democratic Party, Blagojevich previously worked in both the state and federal legislatures. He served as an Illinois state representative from 1993 to 1997, and the U.S. representative from Illinois's 5th district from 1997 to 2003.
Robert Lee Thornton Sr. was an American banker, civic leader, and four-term Mayor of Dallas, Texas.
Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! is a novel by American author Kurt Vonnegut. Written in 1976, it depicts Vonnegut's views of loneliness, both on an individual and social scale.
Thomas Joseph O'Connell was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party from 1927 to 1932. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1922 to 1932. He was a Senator for the Cultural and Educational Panel from 1938 to 1944, 1948 to 1951 and 1954 to 1957.
The Line of Beauty is a 2004 Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst.
Michael O'Riordan was the founder of the Communist Party of Ireland (3rd) and also fought with the Connolly Column in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.
Why Not Me? is a 1999 political satire novel by Al Franken.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a 1999 young adult novel by American author Stephen Chbosky. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows Charlie, an introverted and observant teenager, through his freshman year of high school in a Pittsburgh suburb. The novel details Charlie's unconventional style of thinking as he navigates between the worlds of adolescence and adulthood, and attempts to deal with poignant questions spurred by his interactions with both his friends and family.
All the Pretty Horses is a 2000 American Western film produced and directed by Billy Bob Thornton, based on Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, and starring Matt Damon and Penélope Cruz. It premiered on December 25, 2000 to mostly negative reviews. It grossed $18 million worldwide on a $57 million budget.
Michael Doheny was an Irish writer, lawyer, member of the Young Ireland movement, and co-founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an Irish secret society which would go on to launch the Fenian Raids on Canada, Fenian Rising of 1867, and the Easter Rising of 1916, each of which was an attempt to bring about Irish Independence from Britain.
James Fintan Lalor was an Irish revolutionary, journalist, and “one of the most powerful writers of his day.” A leading member of the Irish Confederation, he was to play an active part in both the Rebellion in July 1848 and the attempted Rising in September of that same year. Lalor's writings were to exert a seminal influence on later Irish leaders such as Michael Davitt, James Connolly, Pádraig Pearse, and Arthur Griffith.
The Ryanverse is a term for the political drama media franchise created by author Tom Clancy centering on the character of Jack Ryan and the fictional universe featuring Jack and other characters, such as John Clark and Domingo Chavez.
A Push and a Shove: A Novel is a 2007 novel in the thriller genre by Christopher Kelly. Kelly, an openly gay man, is a film critic and journalist for Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Texas Monthly. Kelly developed the story over four years and it is "slightly autobiographical [...] with elements of me in both the main characters." Publishers Weekly recommended it as a "combination of revenge and coming-of-age story".
Chester Alan Arthur II, also known as Alan Arthur, was an American sportsman and art connoisseur. He was the son of Chester A. Arthur, president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He studied at Princeton University and Columbia Law School. After completing his studies, Arthur traveled throughout Europe for 10 years. In 1900, he married in Switzerland and moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado to improve his health.
Gib Rides Home is a 1998 novel for young readers by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. It is set in the early 1900s and concerns the plight of young orphan boys who were farmed out to work as unpaid labor until they turned eighteen. A sequel entitled Gib and the Gray Ghost was released in 2001 to positive reviews.