Preface
more of the structure:
Preface
There is a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn: “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” That saying, by the famous author, might be appropriately used in any attempt to summarize the theme of this book, because this book is about this world – a place where good and evil have been mixed together since man had any knowledge of himself. And since good and evil both arise from the heart, an examination of this world would lack any depth of insight if the results somehow avoided peering into the human heart. So this book, set in and about our most recent history surrounding the turn of the century, is a story of both good and evil, and of necessity, a story of the heart. As such, it was a most difficult book to write. Not so much because of the countless hours of research, number and diversity of characters, and their sometimes quite complicated lives – a mirror of the true complications faced in modern mortal life – or the difficulty of keeping within certain bounds of propriety without sacrificing the flavor of reality, but rather because of the pain this author felt in having to face the contents of his own heart. As the inspirations and motives of these wonderful and despicable characters began to reveal themselves, I too was many times revealed and often had to stop because it was just too hard to behold what I saw in the reflection before me. One of those stops was for a period of three years. During this time, there were many life-changes that came about, including our family’s move from Northern California to Northwest Arkansas. An internal war also ensued as to whether to abandon this project and choose a simpler path, or to bring it to its fore-known conclusion. But this book, which had for the most part already written itself, stood pleading to be finished, like justice demanding satisfaction stands waiting for her scales to be balanced. And like the oft elusive and hidden desires of the human heart, which ultimately reveal themselves - because whether admitted or not, those desires are the heart’s will - the soul’s choices and actions are an exact reflection of what that will is. Thus, the book was completed. Whether printed or not, it is a record I felt compelled to file, just as every word and deed is somewhere engraven for review. So I offer you the reader my mirror and invite you to come out on the Terrace, gaze for a few hours, and take a look into the heart of man. Perhaps you’ll find the courage to judge for yourself, which direction the weights tip and how much is wanting for equity - or perhaps you’ll just enjoy a raconteur’s tale – or both. Regardless, there are a few things the reader should know:
Generally, the historical events and allusions in this story occurred as written; a few purposeful deviations are noted below. Except the actions of the fictitious members of the East Palo Alto City Council, various work groups within the Securities and Exchange commission, and certain local, state, federal, and foreign committees, ministries, and agencies, which and whose actions are invented and serve for illustrative purposes only, the commonly known public figures, companies, and their actions are a matter of record, with the following distinct departures from fact made for literary reasons only: Marc Andreessen presented a $250,000 check from Netscape to Al Gore, as a soft money donation to a fund of the Democratic National Committee, in March of 2000 for the 2000 election cycle, not as it is placed in the novel in 1998, which would have been during Mr. Gore’s Legislative fund drive for the 1998 cycle; also, the particular after-California State Democratic Party Convention reception held at the fictional Conrad Hale house on February 12, 2000 never took place, the attendance of nominee Gore, then Governor Davis, and Senators Feinstein and Boxer was purely fictional, though excerpts from then recent speeches of Mr. Gore are accurately reproduced; and President Bill Clinton never met the character Elverta Carter. In fact, all of the characters central to the story are entirely fictional as well as their acquaintances, businesses, conversations, their interaction with actual people, places and things, and all other matters of their lives and surroundings. Any similarity to real persons is not intentional, as is the similarity of their companies and business dealings to real counterparts. That is not to say however, that the book’s characters, and all that involves them, are not representational composites of the tangible world in which we live - this is a fictionalized history. The situational and geographical references herein are as accurate as within the writer’s capabilities, with the exception of the personal offices and homes of the characters. As an example, the New York offices of the fictional investment bank Benjamin Black, are located on the upper floors of the World Financial Center building #3 in Lower Manhattan. American Express Company actually did and does occupy that space. Finally, the foreign languages contained in this novel are written and translated, often contextually, to provide insight into the thinking of the several ethnicities represented herein, and are not necessarily literal and lack the affect of the actual native tongue. For example, a Muslim would almost never say their prayers or recite the Qur’an in English, it would rather be spoken in Arabic. Charts are included for those who wish to trace the complexities of each character’s relationships, but it is the author’s opinion that it is not necessary to retain this knowledge to enjoy the natural flow of this tale. All of this considered, it is hoped that this fictional account will give the reader a flavor of the cultural, social, political, economic, and personal forces that surrounded and shaped the people at the epicenter of the, as yet, most prosperous years in recorded human history.
Nelson Caldwell
