Looks interesting. A take on Idiocracy again. I must save it.
Well I am safely half-way around the world from Trump and the GOP - that helps with the apoplexy. I went to school in the US (which was when I found DU), but moved back to the Global South after an academic job far too close to Si Valley (speaking of a deeply anti-intellectual and cultish culture with the trappings of tech..
).
Thanks for the rec. Definitely looks worth reading and it’s only 320 pages. I love books, but like the OP about 600 pages tops.
I used to 
at descriptions of “The Mysteries of Udolpho” as described in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.
My mom had a book or two of that kind somewhere I vaguely recollect. Now that is an attention span. Several volumes, a 1000 pages each.
Perhaps not Mysteries of Udolpho. But I recollect the protagonist mentioning some sort of mystery several volumes in length.
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