Jan David Blais

Twentieth Century Limited: Book Two - Age of Reckoning Jan David Blais

Overcoming disabling injuries, Vietnam vet Paul Bernard becomes an award-winning journalist and television newsman known for holding a mirror to American society. Long critical of the radical right, after 9/11 he assails the Bush administration for letting Osama bin Laden escape and leading the nation into a disastrous war. On assignment in Iraq, Bernard is killed under suspicious circumstances. Interwoven with the account of his life is an interview of his mentor, Professor Augustus F. X. Flynn, by a writer profiling Bernard. Frustrated by Washington's inaction, the two set out to find the truth about the killing. 

Book One relates Paul Bernard's early years through the devastation of Vietnam to recovery and return, immersion in the New York newspaper scene, his family life. In Book Two, he has become an oil expert and a critic of America's Middle East dependency. Bernard's experiences as a correspondent in Paris and Moscow are related in this Book, his coverage of the great year 1989 in Europe, the Gulf War. His move to television news is marked by growing clashes with the radical right, culminating in his controversial stance against the Iraq War and the dramatic final events of the story.