Checkpoint (novel)
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Checkpoint is an American novel written by Nicholson Baker in 2004.
Contents |
[edit] Summary and Ending
Its main characters are two men, Jay and Ben. The entire novel consists of the dialogues between the two men in a room in a hotel in Washington in May of 2004. The novel begins with Jay asking Ben to come to his hotel room, and from that piece of conversation it is inferrable that Jay is thoroughly depressed; his wife has left him, his girlfriend has left him, he has lost his job as a high-school teacher, he works as a day laborer and has declared personal bankruptcy, he spends his days reading blogs. Jay begins to explain that he has decided that he must, "for the good of humankind" assassinate President George W. Bush and then kill himself. Ben operates as the symbol for American modern liberalism and spends his time in the novel trying to persuade Jay to cancel his "mission". The end of the novel is inconclusive, the reader is left wondering whether or not Jay is going to kill the President and/or himself.
[edit] Main Issues
The great majority of Jay's (who critics say acts as the extremist in the book) time is spent denouncing the American war in Iraq. Ben's main argument against Jay's decision to assassinate the President to stop the Iraq war is that it will only create more bloodshed.
[edit] Criticism
Some critics claimed that the ideas and feelings expressed by Jay were in fact not extreme, but were expressed by a majority of Bush's decidely coherent opponents. By characterizing Jay as a madman, critics suggested that Baker consequently labels those ideas as extreme.
