I’ve always been a big reader, enough to get my Bachelor’s Degree in English (I know, what a nerd, right?) Every time I read a work of fiction, I try to work out what the connection is from the book to what I see going on in the world. The funny thing about it is that I never fail to come up with some sort of significant comparison. Literature is funny that way, in that you can read it at any point in history and it will still be relevant.

Recently, I read a book by one of my favorite authors, Anthony Trollope. Trollope’s got a way with scandal, which is kind of fitting, given his name, and his stories never disappoint me. Think of a Jane Austen novel on steroids: more gossip, more intentional misunderstandings, and more drama.

In Trollope’s novel, Rachel Ray (no connection to the celebrity cook/writer) the whole town of Baslehurst is on edge due to an upcoming election (see, I told you literature is relatable.) Well, it’s not totally about the election. All the families in this little town have their own issues, which end up being transposed onto the issue of the election.

The Tappitt family runs a brewery, famous for its incredibly disgusting beer. The Tappitts have always brewed bad beer, and they’re proud of it. But Mr. Tappitt’s silent partner, Mr. Bungall, passes away, leaving his share of the brewery to his nephew, Luke Rowan. Luke is not nearly as silent as his late uncle was. He comes to the Baslehurst brewery with some crazy ideas- such as brewing good beer. Understandably, Tappitt is appalled by this idea. To make matters worse, rather than falling in love and marrying one of the Tappitt daughters, the audacious Luke sets his sights on another young woman in town: Rachel Ray.

It becomes clear that Tappitt and Luke are never going to get along- one gentleman will have to buy the other out. Tappitt, oddly enough, doesn’t have the money on hand (apparently brewing beer that nobody likes to drink is not super lucrative) and so Luke offers to pay Tappitt 1,000 pounds every year for life if he retires. To crunch the numbers for you, that would be about $120,000 per year in today’s money. Not a bad deal for a retired guy!

Naturally, Tappitt is, again, incredibly offended. How dare Luke assume he’s an old man who wants to retire? (Note: Mrs. Tappitt says several times throughout the novel that Tappitt is an old man who ought to retire.) So Tappitt retaliates by spreading nasty rumors about Luke throughout town. Luke, for his part, doesn’t rely on word of mouth. He goes ahead and writes a review of Tappitt’s beer in the local paper.

I could go on, but I’d rather encourage you all to read the book yourselves.

The conflict reaches a boiling point at the election. Both men, at this point, have selected their candidates of choice (in a somewhat arbitrary way) and have been furiously campaigning. Citizens were not voting for a representative anymore: they were voting either for Luke or Tappitt.

It’s so easy to get caught up in an election, especially when voters bring into it all the baggage of, for just a random example, the last eight months or so. After the election in Rachel Ray, things calmed down, and everybody found ways to deal with each other again, although to say everyone became friends would be overstating the situation significantly.

I truly hope that, after our own election, things will also begin to calm down. I’d like to think that fiction can predict the future, but who knows? I’ll be sitting on pins and needles to see how this story ends!