Checkpoint (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Nicholson Baker
- First Published: 2004
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 2004
- Setting: Washington, D.C.
- Principal Characters: Jay, Ben
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Politics, Protests or demonstrations, Friendship, War, Assassination, Presidents, Arms or weapons, Activism, Iraq or Iraqi people
- Locales: Washington, D.C.
How does one judge, strictly on its literary merits, a novel about the planned assassination of the current American president, published at the height of the most contentious election season in recent memory? The answer to that question, based on the tone and quantity of the publicity that greeted Nicholson Baker's Checkpoint, is: with great difficulty, if at all.
An overview of the story itself is disarmingly simple: Two middle-aged men named Jay and Ben, old friends, spend an afternoon in a Washington, D.C., hotel room discussing Jay's supposed scheme to murder George...
[The entire page is 2246 words long]
