The inherent danger with a politically grounded novel is the potential to read the book as an author’s manifesto. There is a desire for the reader to take a Rhetorical Critic’s stance on the text and interpret every politically-backed statement as the author’s personal belief. And with this danger comes the potential to polarize audiences. Joey Goebel’s third novel, Commonwealth, is weighed by this dynamic, however he has the storytelling chops to move beyond treatise territory and deliver a great story, helped, not hindered, by the political setting.

Commonwealth follows the Mapother family black sheep, “Blue Gene” Eugene, as he slowly morphs from passive flea marketer and Wal-Mart enthusiast to aggressive philanthropist with communist leanings. Blue Gene, willing dissident in regards to his family’s unfathomable fortune, adopts a working class lifestyle far removed from his wealthy family. This tension is only heightened by his brother, John Hurstbourne Mapother’s, campaign for a congressional seat. As the novel progresses, pandering for votes becomes not-to-far removed from pandering for familial affection, which forces the Mapother family into devastating conflict.

Though Blue Gene is mostly a caricature of the “red neck” conservative right, much of the conflict deals with the narrator’s unexpected struggle with these “red state” ideals as seeded by the novel’s love interest, the elfin-faced Jackie Stepchild, female lead of the anit-establishment punk band Uncle Sam’s Finger. Jackie represents a caricature of her own, the Left extremist, anti-capitalist aggravator, and the juxtaposition of the two characters adds to the Rhetorical Critic’s argument that Goebel himself may be attempting to find his place between Left and Right just as Blue Gene questions his own stance between these extremes. Much of the political points and counterpoints within the novel are so well articulated that it becomes hard to distance the author from the material. And I argue that this is exactly the point of the novel.

Beyond the politics of Commonwealth is a story very much grounded in the coming of age tradition. Blue Gene, always a proto-male, in love with monster trucks and professional wrestling, falls for Jackie in a way that might best be described as a simple crush. Though the relationship elevates as the novel progresses, Blue Gene has difficultly in admitting to his attraction, instead playing the “man’s man” role after their first extended conversation by commenting that “he hadn’t even gotten a good look at [her] breasts” [pg. 174].

Goebel’s previous novels are decidedly absent of politics, making Commonwealth quite the departure. And more so perhaps, an evolution. Where The Anomalies deals with a ragtag group of outcasts learning to accept their place in society, and Torture the Artist explores the importance of creation on a conceptual level, Commonwealth combines the two models to examine how seemingly radical views may be implemented in order to create a society properly disposed toward community rather than toward the individual.