Book: ADMIT THE HORSE by P. G. Abeles

ADMIT THE HORSE is a fictionalized telling of the 2008 primary and general election. Not the myths developed and created by the political gods and marketed 24/7 by mass media. But the back story of ordinary citizens engaged in a historic election and participating in ways they never dreamed possible. Each person discovers or holds the key to a conflicting reality in the myth of “The One,” Senator Okono from Illinois, and his meteoric rise to the Presidency.

In ancient times a myth was considered “a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind came to be in their present form” (1).  Myths were presented by priests and rulers and considered by the citizenry to be true stories extolling the virtues and publicizing the sins of gods, heroes and humans. But “familiarity breeds contempt” and that holds particularly true with myths.

As the citizenry began to perceive weaknesses and conflicts in the mythology of their gods and heroes, they developed alternative explanations that better reflected their own truths and reality. It is a testament to the depth of the disparity between the competing realities and the strength of the citizenry’s will to prevail that we now consider a myth to be “an imaginary or fictitious thing or person…an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution.”(2)

P.G. Abeles’ compelling political thriller, Admit The Horse begs the reader to question and discover the historical vs mythical versions of our last presidential election.  Through a complex tale that weaves a multitude of perspectives into a political “perfect storm” starting with a financial industry facing the abyss in the fall of 2007 and the death of a government employee following the creation of a fictitious birth certificate, to the political rise and untimely death of a share cropper’s daughter and the aftermath of President Okono’s financial appointees, Ms. Abeles presents a modern tale of the Trojan Horse. A gift from the enemy too beautifully crafted for the citizenry to resist, which in reality held soldiers who would bring death to the trusting citizenry as they slept.

Wisely, Ms. Abeles leaves the ending of this tale with plenty for the reader to ponder and decide. Which parts are history, mythology or fiction? Is President Okono the Trojan horse who hides the destruction that follows in his wake or merely a foot soldier riding in under the disguise of an even more beautifully crafted horse? Will the citizenry wake up to the myth of “The One” in time to save themselves? Or are the soldiers of destruction already at our bedroom doors? I can only hope Ms. Abeles upcoming novel The Madness of Crowds, about Wall Street, picks up where Admit The Horse left off.

Admit The Horse is an intricately plotted novel and outstanding début. Brava Ms. Abeles!