Absurdities of the Global War on Terror Inspire Rep. Steve Israel’s First Novel

Steve Israel, the U.S. representative for New York’s third Congressional District, has drawn on his political expertise to pen the novel The Global War on Morris (Simon & Schuster), a satirical story about pharmaceutical salesman Morris Feldstein.

Feldstein — a character who actively avoids conflict and prefers a calm, undisturbed life — uncharacteristically engages in an affair with a receptionist at a doctor’s office along his sales route. Unbeknownst to Feldstein, this tangle launches him to the top of the government’s watch list as the powerful surveillance system "NICK" pulls together disparate threads of Feldstein’s life to link him to a terrorist cell in Boca Raton, Florida.

Here, Israel discusses how his work in the political arena — as the two-term leader of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the sixth-ranking member of the House Democratic leadership — inspired him to write his first novel.

Photo by Katrina Hajagos

Bookselling This Week: Over the years, you’ve written several satire pieces for The New Yorker and the Huffington Post. What inspired you to write a novel?

Steve Israel: Growing up on Long Island I had three dreams: 1) become a Congressman; 2) write a novel; 3) play outfield for the Mets. Since I was horrible at baseball, I focused on 1 and 2. My book is a convergence of those experiences.

BTW: Why did you choose to write The Global War on Morris from a comical standpoint?

SI: If I wrote a serious book on the post-9/11 balance between liberty and security for the current events shelves of the bookstore, it never would have made it to the bookstore. I chose satire as a pointed and accessible way of commenting on the sometimes absurd (but very real) responses of the government to threats, real and perceived, serious and imagined.

BTW: How did you manage to balance satire and humor against the heavy subjects of terrorism and national security?

SI: That was the most difficult balance in the book. Terrorism is not to be trivialized. There is nothing comical about it. However, many aspects of our response to terror deserve criticism: putting Sen. Ted Kennedy on the No Fly List; planning to divert an inbound plane carrying Cat Stevens because he was believed to be a threat; building a bureaucracy of acronyms to fight terror; accidentally spying on a group of innocent Quakers. I’m gratified that the Washington Post book review acknowledged that I managed to achieve that balance.

BTW: What of your own experiences in the political arena did you bring into the narrative?

SI: The entire novel is based on my participation in meetings with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and the top hierarchy of our homeland security and defense infrastructure. I’d listen to the dialogue in these meetings, believing it would make a great book — a great, implausible book. So I turned it into a comical narrative. I hope I’m taking people behind the scenes in an accessible, humorous way. 

BTW: How do you think readers of different political persuasions will respond to the novel?

SI: If I’m missing for more than three days, check with Dick Cheney. 

BTW: In your work and travels as a congressman, have you had the opportunity to visit some of the many great bookstores on Long Island, in Washington D.C., or beyond?

SI: I travel the country extensively. There is no place I’ve been where I don’t try to visit a bookstore. My staff has been trained to find a bookstore as a refuge from the pressures of the day. In my own district, I visit Book Revue so often I’m assumed to be an employee — which is a perfect disguise for a member of the most unpopular Congress in history.