SOURCE: "Condon's Hilarious Nightmare," in Washington Post, No. 64, February 7, 1990, p. C2.

Below, Yardley applauds the accuracy of Condon's satire in Emperor of America.

Richard Condon's 23rd work of fiction isn't so much a novel as a jeremiad, but that is scarcely likely to scare away his many admirers. Emperor of America is, so far as plot and characterization and other such trifles are concerned, rather short of the mark; but as a sendup of the Reaganite nightmare and the televidiotic culture upon which it fed, Emperor of America is bang on from first page to last—a mean, nasty and thoroughly hilarious piece of social and political lampoonery.

Its underlying premise is that, as "Ronald Reagan had very nearly broken his heart in trying to warn America," Nicaragua is "out to conquer the world." The Sandinistan designs are ghastly:

In 1980, Nicaragua had a population of 3 million people, but...