The Noble American

The American Period Author Sharpens Message in Thoughtful Short Novels Sometimes it seems Western civilization was built upon the most ancient and natural grounds for conflict. The Noble American takes up this line of inquiry by postulating that life is an unending battle between reality and idealism. This idea was drawn from the legendary exploits of the soldier-adventurer Don Quixote, whose chivalric code immortalized the Golden Age of Spain. The Noble American is a literary work that provides a candid look at the current state of affairs of the United States. The book includes two short novels that are filled with intellectual curiosity, subtle irony, and aesthetic imagery of Spain and the past. In The Noble American, Isaak Parker is a dedicated intelligence agent, a young man of conviction and honor. His childhood adventures slaying dragons provide the basis of this modern story of the United States in the wake of 9/11. Later, as he pursues his mission in the drug wars, he leaves Mexico for Spain, and in his quest to marry his childhood girlfriend he finds that he is living a life of disillusion, privation, and poverty. Through Mueller's sympathetic eye, Parker's tortured and romantic soul becomes a symbol of the American Period and a portrayal of an age in which nobility can be only a form of madness. The Good Spaniard depicts another aspect of the noble nature of the United States. Luke Forsyth, a graduate of the Air Force Academy, must decide whether or not to return to his radar squadron after being left for dead in Peru. In his search he leaves the life of his girlfriend in tatters. Mueller vividly describes how the self-contradictory American soul embodies the blessings and curses of impossible dreams, and the cost of human lives they sometimes demand.