Do or Die

Do or Die

PURSUITS

CHARLES WHEELAN '88

The Rationing W.W. NORTON 464 PP. $27

The United States of America, land of plenty, faces a shortage. The only remedy for a killer pathogen that’s spreading rapidly is in limited supply, and the president and his advisors have tough calls to make. No amount of American exceptionalism will suffice. To get through the calamity, the White House must wheel and deal with a range of other countries, all of which have a plentiful supply of a miracle-cure called Dormigen they can offer. At a price.

Told through the eyes of a naive, self-deprecating, and funny narrator who is a scientist working with the crisis team, The Rationing is a cinematic, snappy, satiric page-turner. Set in the near future, after Elizabeth Warren has lost 49 states in a presidential election and the Dartmouth basketball team has actually won games in the NCAA tournament, it’s a rollicking tale, even with the threat of amassive die-off looming. Wheelan includes bits of local flavor for alumni: His narrator—a Dartmouth alum—returns to Hanover for a chat with a bio prof, a doting scientist who prods his erstwhile student to tease out the riddle of the virus.

Wheelan, who teaches public policy and economics at Dartmouth, injects his story with political plot points about executive power, the limits of the U.S. Constitution, and how prepared a superpower might be in dealing with potential catastrophe. But with a cast of characters that includes the usual suspects—heroes, villains, idiots—political theory never trumps plot.

This is Wheelan’s first foray into fiction. A former correspondent for The Economist and a one-time congressional candidate, he is the author of Naked Statistics and Naked Economics. His turn to fiction started during a sabbatical year in 2009, and he completed the novel while on a round-the-world trip with his family seven years later.

“The overarching theme is that government matters,” he tells DAM. “It really does. All the characters are flawed, but they muddle along, reminding us that there are things the public sector must do well, and this is one of them.” It’s no spoiler to say that in The Rationing’s final reckoning, Wheelan makes his point by having the world’s largest democracy (look it up) play a vital role as the novel races to its conclusion.

Sean Plottner

For an excerpt from The Rationing, visit our website.