JFK was one of the first political figures to wed the power of celebrity and fame with politics in the TV era. Like a rock star, he also died tragically at the prime of his life. Is it any wonder then that more than 40 years after his assassination the event still permeates pop culture?
It certainly had an effect on Toronto film critic Jason Anderson. His first novel, Showbiz, presents an alternate universe where President Theodore Cannon, a good-looking, womanizing, New England-bred copy of JFK, is gunned down. The tragedy effectively ends the career of Jimmy Wynn, a comedian with a gift for impersonating the president. Wynn quickly fades into obscurity, only to be discovered some 25 years later by Nathan Grant, a struggling Canadian journalist. But like JFK, there are dark forces and rumours of conspiracy behind Cannon’s assassination, forces that are stirred by Grant’s investigations into a now obscure reclusive comic.
Comparable to Libra, Don DeLillo’s novel about Lee Harvey Oswald, Showbiz offers darker, comic touches. Anderson’s years of writing about music and film also come out in this work. As he skewers the emptiness and soul-destroying aspects of the biz. (Ron Nurwisah)
by Jason Anderson, $18.95, 330 pgs, ECW Press, 2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, ON, M4E 1E2, ecwpress.com