Christopher Sorrentino’s Trance blends history and fiction to recreate the story of the Symbionese Liberation Army’s 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst, loosely following events to create the same strange effect the news had on the country when it first broke on TV. Sorrentino employs a variety of perspectives, including SLA leader Cinque Mtube and Hearst’s father (although with different names), to critique how the radical movement failed in acheiving their goals. The author doesn’t offer an explanation of how Hearst turned from heiress to radical so quickly, but there are a number of compelling passages (such as Hearst watching the SLA in a firefight on TV), and does a great job attempting to create the media hooplah spawned by the event.

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Blogger Mediated goes to a Sorrentino reading of Trance and asks questions.