It’s 2002–the height of the War on Terror panic–and Sam, a
life-long, left-wing radical, has had enough. He finally decides to
stow his black ski mask and move to the uneventful mid-sized city of
Springfield, Illinois to settle down and sell out as a gas utility
regulator. His plans to coast and collect a check, however, are
complicated when the pipe of a major gas provider he’s tasked with
overseeing explodes, killing a school janitor and sending an
overfunded security apparatus into full-on John Milius mode–looking
for terrorists who aren’t there and using “Homeland” authority
to mask their self-dealing.
Soon,
Sam discovers the real problem isn’t outside threats, but a culture
of casual negligence and an opaque system of “charity” and
“public-private partnership” that diverts money away from public
safety and into the pockets of government and corporate higher-ups.
With the help of a sarcastic local reporter, a kind but jaded office
chum, and a mix of other outcasts, Sam realizes that “going with
the flow” may come at too high a cost.
Testimony
isn’t about One Great Man taking on the system, but about one okay,
flawed person working with a rag-tag team of other okay, flawed
people to combat a system of cynicism and greed much bigger than
them. Testimony is a sardonic political noir about corporate
regulatory capture, a mid-size city finding meaning in security
theater, and reluctant rediscovery of lost idealism.
Co-author
Peter Lazare passed away in November 2018 with a first draft of a
novel. His daughter, Sarah Lazare, spent two years following his
death adding to and editing the manuscript, viewing it as a writing
collaboration. Peter was an expert analyst at the Illinois Commerce
Commission in Springfield, Illinois for two decades, co-owner of the
Grab-a-Java coffee shop and, during his earlier years, protested the
Vietnam War, organized for the labor movement, and worked as a
socialist organizer in a Chicago garment factory. Sarah is a staff
reporter and web editor for In These Times.
