La Chispa

The Revolution Begins

La Chispa
By Perry McFarlin

          The new healthcare legislation cost William Snider his job and home.  As his middle class life falls apart, anger against the government brews.  In an attempt to calm her husband’s growing storm, Sarah plans a family trip to Washington D.C.  Nearly broke they walk along the National Mall with their children.  Through a series of believable events; they experience the “true underbelly” of today’s government.  However, in another believable plot point, the author, Perry McFarlin, shows how podcasters and flash mobs could today change the course of history at such an epic moment.  This moment becomes the spark that the author uses for his title, La Chispa. 

          The first portion of the story closely follows the Snider family and is largely shown to us through events in the plot.  This is the best-written, most compelling part of the story.  Within this first section there are a number of excellent lines, such as “putting plume to parchment,” and a home with “all the luxuries that credit cards could fill it with,” that show the talent of the author.    

          With many stories in this genre, I have trouble believing how the crisis could start, but McFarlin does that well.  However, as the story continues, the reader is introduced to a host of new characters from police officers to gang members and the President.  Each has a role to play in events that spark the coming revolution.  This may reflect how events often happen in reality, many people playing their small role in the grand scheme of history, but as the Snider family fell into the background and new characters moved to the forefront I wondered where the story was going.  I began to doubt that McFarlin would tie up the loose ends by the Epilogue.  To his credit, he does manage to tie up most of the loose ends.

           Perry McFarlin has both talent and potential, but he will need to tighten up his plots and follow that old writers adage, show don’t tell, if he intends to reach a wider audience.  Nevertheless, within the militia-TEOWAWKI genre, La Chispa is a good read.  I suspect that we will be seeing more and better stories from him in the near future.