Book Talk: Donlea, ‘Twenty Years Later’

Fifteen million viewers held their breaths while Avery Mason, the 24-year-old anchor of American Events, the most popular newsmagazine on television, sat in the driver’s seat of a Honda minivan, perched on a hydraulic lift above a high-school swimming pool. When the restraint was released, the car rolled at the angle that a car veering off a highway and into a river or lake would fall. 

Avery had completed a week of instruction from experts on how to escape a sinking automobile, but now — with cameras filming inside the minivan, above the pool, and underwater — the water filling the car was terrorizing. Avery turned sideways on the driver’s seat, braced herself against the middle console, and started kicking at the lower right quadrant of the side window, the spot that experts assured her was the weakest area of the glass. The purpose of the exhibition was to show people how to survive a similar accident, but it was also a media event that had been heavily advertised.

The following day, Avery learned that ratings for the program had broken all previous records, and she huddled with her agent to review the contract that was presented to her for the following year. She claimed that the network was offering chickenfeed, compared to her season’s ratings and the minivan stunt that topped it off. The agent reminded her of her youth and suggested that if she wanted significantly more, she’d have to come up with another blockbuster to kick off the new season.