A God In Ruins -- Leon Uris

A God In Ruins

Leon Uris

HarperCollins, 1999

Leon Uris is a great storyteller.  Anyone who has ever read Exodus or Trinity knows this.  However, A God In Ruins is neither of these two great novels, nor is it a distant relative.

A God In Ruins is an interesting story, is well plotted, but seems to lose something in its character development.  The characters are almost stereotypically caricaturish.  Two men, one adopted and raised by Irish Catholics on a ranch and the other a self-made rags-to-riches millionaire genius with few scruples.  The present is election year 2008 and both protagonists are looking back on their lives as Election Day approaches (one is the incumbent president, the other the governor of Colorado and the Democratic nominee for president).  Quinn Patrick O'Connell is the son (adopted) of a World War II veteran and Colorado statesman, a military hero himself, and an honor-bound gung ho idealist.  Thornton Tomtree grew up a junkyard owner's son, built a computer that became indispensable in the business world, used his fame and connections to become President of the United States.

There are interesting plot twists and asides that lead the reader to understand that Uris is an unabashed liberal.  The book was published in 1999, so 9/11 had not occurred, but there is a national tragedy that occurs in Thornton's presidency that affects the current race, which is an uncanny call by Uris (although the tragedy in the novel and that of 9/11 are totally different in nature and several years apart).  O'Connell constantly longs to find out who his real parents are and a development in this area late in the book provides a bit of twist that Uris pulled off quite well.

Still, A God In Ruins reads like bad soap opera and is a disappointment for any Leon Uris fan.  Yet, it is a novel worth reading simply to gain Uris' take on the political climate of the United States at the turn of the century.  Funny, except for the self-made genius part, the character of Thornton Tomtree is nearly a dead-ringer for our currrent corporate-controlled president, George W. Bush.