Absolute Power - David Baldacci (e-book) - zeke23seeders: 13
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Absolute Power - David Baldacci (e-book) - zeke23 (Size: 2.05 MB)
Description  In a heavily guarded mansion in a posh Virginia suburb, a man and a woman are about to embark on a night of passion, trapping an unsuspecting burglar behind a secret wall. Then the lovemaking turns deadly, and the witness is running into the night. Because what he has just seen is a brutal slaying involving the president of the United States. Luther Whitney is the career break-in artist who’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. Alan Richmond is the charming U.S. president with the power to commit any crime. And Jack Graham is the young attorney caught in a vortex between absolute truth and…Absolute Power. * * * * * David on The Writing Process: Absolute Power Each writing project presents its own distinct set of challenges. With my first novel, ABSOLUTE POWER, I had a dilemma from the very first page. I decided that the first character the reader would meet would be a burglar, Luther Whitney (the Clint Eastwood character, for those of you who saw the movie but didn’t read the book.) For the novel to work, the reader had to like, or at least sympathize with, Whitney. The challenge to overcome was that Luther Whitney was a criminal. The opening scene showed Whitney, not a particularly sympathetic character, breaking into a home to steal valuables. Here’s how I went about overcoming that problem… First, as superficial and callous as it sounds, Whitney stole only from the rich. Some would say, “They can afford to lose it; they have insurance.” If I relied completely on that justification, however, the story would still have failed. Second, I made it clear that Whitney had never harmed anyone during his burglaries and never even carried a weapon. He relied on his skills and his wits. That made him more palatable. Third, and perhaps most important, I positioned Whitney’s act of burglary next to an act of far greater criminality: a man beating and nearly killing a woman. Last, I put Luther Whitney in a locked closet, with a one-way mirror, and forced him to watch this heinous crime. By doing so I also locked the reader in the closet with Whitney. Readers were looking over his shoulder and watching too. (There’s a bit of voyeur in everyone.) Whitney was repulsed by what he saw and wanted to help the woman, but he would have sacrificed his own freedom (and perhaps his life) by doing so. A tough decision for anyone. He ended up doing nothing and hated himself for it. And you, the reader, felt all of those same emotions and thereby bonded with Whitney. Readers came out of that room when he did, perhaps not loving Whitney, but certainly better understanding who and what he was – forgetting about Luther Whitney, the burglar, and focusing on Luther Whitney, the man. At that point, with my initial dilemma overcome, I could get on with the story. DID YOU KNOW… -ABSOLUTE POWER was adapted by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman as a film starring Clint Eastwood and produced by Castle Rock Entertainment (1997). The all-star cast included Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Scott Glenn, Dennis Haysbert and Judy Davis. Sharing Widget |