Torture isn’t meant to be funny nor politically correct. But if there is a smidgeon of humor in it, satirist and political essayist Franklin Alfred Kirby Edwards will find it, and has. In this “narrative essay” the author deals with the dark subject of CIA torture of terrorist suspects in the years following the even darker and deadly September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. He brings lavish facts and insight as well as logical breadth and refreshing opinion to the task, all ladled with pinches of needle-sharp satire and literary wit. And readers take off your blinders because The Water Board Jungle (38,000 words) isn’t a near-sighted political tract. It’s more, much, much more. Its often laconic commentary tells the story of what America has become post-9-11, and acts as a sobering slap in the face, and shouts “Snap out of it!”
