Vivian's Song (ePub)

During the height of the dotcom era free-thinking Texas cowboy Duke Tanner becomes wealthy by investing in Bay Area technology start-ups. Duke attributes his success to his own version of the concept that wealth can be created through the power of thought and he becomes a local New Age guru. The charismatic Duke starts marketing his ideas in the San Francisco area and soon finds an eager audience during the stock market boom of the 1990s, becoming an in demand lecturer and author.

By chance Duke buys land near a small Missouri town to base his burgeoning mail order business. It turns out that Duke's nearest neighbor is Senator Charles Wentworth, one of the most conservative members of Congress. When the local clergy become enraged by Duke's iconoclastic writings and his criticisms of Christianity they conspire with the Senator to run him out of town. Things become more complicated when Duke befriends the heir to Senator Wentworth's largest corporate donor and he threatens to take over the company. When Senator Wentworth hatches a plan to render Duke's property uninhabitable Duke responds in an unexpected way that sparks a massive backlash. Everything comes to a head during a massive protest rally in the tiny town during which both sides clash. After a near catastrophe Duke reevaluates his motives and changes his message to mixed results.