I had picked up The Great Leader in iBooks some time ago but never got around to reading it. Recently, however, I have been restless in my reading and struggling to real get into whatever I was reading (and not reviewing what I had managed to read). As part of that restlessness I started reading TGL on my iPad. I was soon engrossed despite the oddness of the book.
It is discursive and frequently vulgar. It’s politics seem leftwing. But perhaps because I am not getting any younger, I was fascinated by the central character and his quest to put away the Great Leader and find some semblance of balance in life as he enters retirement still in the after shock of divorce.
I didn’t find the musings on sex, religion and money insightful nor am I sure they were meant to be in a didactic way. Rather I was drawn to the brutal honesty and rawness of Sunderson. Perhaps it was like being unable to take your eyes off an accident but once I had begun I just had to see where this odd story and character would end up.
The ending seemed a little too neat on the one hand and not all that much of a resolution on the other but I enjoyed the ride. Which was the point when I started reading. I have only read one other book by Harrison (Returning to Earth) so I don’t have much to compare but I seem to enjoy his explorations of the sometimes unseemly side of my native Michigan.
