American Kiss: A Collection of Short Stories

"Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" - for almost three centuries, America's shores have beckoned the world with those ear-tingling words to find a land like none other, where dreams really do come true and miracles happen every day in the atmosphere of freedom. The virtues of courage, hard work, and devotion to a cause have almost always been rewarded with a happily-ever-after in America, but in recent years, the American Dream has become a nightmare of deferred hopes and frustrated efforts. Today, millions remain persistently unemployed. An entire generation is choosing to live alone and unmarried. The costs of education, housing, and medical care are skyrocketing, and even though people are making more money than ever before, no one seems to have enough money for anything. China is overtaking the United States as an industrial and economic leader, while Russia is becoming more hostile and dangerous to the West. Just what happened to America's great future?

The youngest and last of Generation X grew up with President Ronald Reagan's promise of a future America "unafraid, unashamed, and unsurpassed" only to encounter endless bloody wars, a collapsing palace economy with scarce rewards for a connected few, and a future of loneliness with true love just around the corner but always out of reach. American Kiss is a collection of short fiction stories that takes readers on a American journey from the mid-1990s to the distant future, through the growing pains of young, unrequited love and rejection to a bleak, dystopian future where only a lone American hero can save the galaxy.

Can a third party, libertarian candidate ever become the future President of the United States of America? What would happen if Congress randomly selected an ordinary voter to deliver the State of the Union in place of the president, and what would America hear? What does the future hold for America's Asian-American population? Has the Global War on Terror and the rise of unmanned drones gone too far? Is war a video game? Does America even exist in the distant future? Can one man's love for the woman of his dreams overcome the fierce jealousy of wicked men, a new world order gone mad, and a future ruled by lies? In American Kiss, readers face these questions and more.

Internationally renowned Hawaii political columnist and profiler Dr. Danny de Gracia brings in his debut novel a smart, sexy, and romantic romp through the essence of the American experience that touches the human soul and challenges the conscience with questions about our modern West. Zany, satirical, and jam-packed with allegorical editorials, American Kiss is the anthem novel for America's remnant of true believers in the American Dream - and an invitation to change the world we know for the planet we were promised.

Author: Danny de Gracia

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: May 18, 2015

Number of Pages: 366 pages

Binding: Paperback or Softback

ISBN-10: 1505882842

ISBN-13: 9781505882841