A captivating and action-packed futuristic fictional work accurately describes Rolf Margenau’s book, National Parks. Portia Merson, assistant general counsel of the National Green Defense League, heard the disturbing news from Grover, her husband. Serving as the chief counsel to Congresswoman Pert Pewtree, Grover informs her about the House bill to sell the national parks. Portia becomes so alarmed that she accidentally drives through Senator Deborah Hatchett’s front lawn with her ecologically-appropriate Prius. Senator Hatchett, one of the four senators who are pushing the legislation to defund and privatize national parks, is introduced to the reader. The conflict between those who are committed to preserving these national treasures and those who can make tremendous profits from the sales reaches new heights of intrigue and danger. Many other characters are introduced – such as Sneath Naydir, a high-paid lobbyist; Melvin Salmon, a computer wizard; Tureen O’Porto, a savvy, beautiful lobbyist – and complex motivations and actions become more and more convoluted.

The author has skillfully developed complicated, yet understandable scenarios of how a future national government may operate. Aided with new technologies, and nearly unstoppable corruption, the book is truly thought-provoking. Rolf Margenau has presented a comprehensive study of life inside the Beltway. His writing style is concise, and the narratives are believable. He also adds in touches of humor and love scenes to provide a real life balance. The story is fast-paced, and the reader is engaged from beginning to end. A very interesting read!

National Parks is an interesting fictional story that has a strong non-fiction undertone to it. In a quote by bestselling author David Aretha, he claims that National Parks is a “fresh, scathing, hilarious, and brilliant satire of greedy corporate America and our shamefully broken Congress.” I tend to disagree with this and felt that it was very much like real life as I read about the plan to sell off our national parks to fund a bankrupt America. There were plenty of lobbyists, congressional people and businessmen to go around who were kept busy making deals and plotting against each other to pass the bill, fail the bill, and/or to be ready to purchase a park for their own devious reasons. It was very easy to see the Washington thinking in each of the characters and somewhat scary.

I somehow missed the humor, satire and freshness in National Parks, but found it interesting, possible and an intriguing idea. Rolf Margenau obviously knows his political facts and has written a sharp and clever portrayal of what could happen to our country in the future. I enjoyed reading National Parks and found it to be both entertaining, frightening and daunting, all at the same time. I was pleased with the ending, which wrapped up what was happening to each of the characters once the issue of selling the parks was voted on. You will have to read National Parks for yourself to find out the results and share in the adventures; I do not think that you will be disappointed.