Biggest Elvis: A Novel

P. F. Kluge, author of The Edge of Paradise and a former Peace Corps volunteer in the Pacific, has written a many-layered novel set in the Philippines near the U.S. naval base of Subic Bay, in the debased beer-and-sex-soaked district of Olongapo. This entertaining and atmospheric story is also an oblique commentary on American cultural imperialism and the consequences for Americans. His protagonists are three guys who work together as Elvis impersonators in Olongapo; one portrays the young hip Elvis, one the tired movie idol, and the third the bloated caricature of his later years. These three come to represent the stages of America's own progression from lean innovator to overblown superpower. Inexorably, the local inhabitants come to regard the biggest Elvis as their savior.