Stephen King may have started his newest epic, “Under the Dome” in 1979, but he clearly needed the events of the past eight years in order to flesh it out and finish it. For “Dome” is a microcosm of the United States after 9/11.

I’m about three-quarters of the way through the 1,075-page novel, having absorbed most of it via audiobook to give my eyes a rest in the evening. It took about 200 pages to begin seeing the pattern of the various threads King weaves into the tapestry of exploitation of fear.

All the characters, as interpreted by King, are there:

Andy Sanders, the first selectman of Chester’s Mill, is George W. Bush thinly disguised — a good-hearted, if slightly befuddled figurehead cajoled, controlled and bullied into unspeakable acts by his second-in-command.

Big Jim Rennie, the second selectman of Chester’s Mill, is Dick Cheney, barely disguised at all. Big Jim is sanctimonious, hypocritcal and a world-class crook, with a grasping need for power and avarice. He even has a bum ticker, a la Cheney.

Police Chief Pete Randolph, a dunderhead way out of his league and also controlled by Big Jim Rennie/Cheney, is an amalgamation of several Bush administration officials, mostly Donald Rumsfeld. He steps into power when the fair-minded, well-liked police chief dies within minutes of the dome’s descent. At least in real life Colin Powell didn’t have to die for Randolph/Rumsfeld to gain his position.

The white hats include a Republican newspaper editor and an Iraq war hero whose distaste for the Army and the powers that be solidified during a stint that saw him participating in torture and other actions that turned his stomach.

The body count is large, but the political commentary trumps it. King was clearly deeply affected, if not sickened, by the actions of the Bush administration and its war on terror. His use of his indomitable bully pulpit — a huge readership and worldwide audience — is perhaps an attempt to work out his angst. Readers, particularly those who don’t lean to the left, may find the political commentary a little tough to swallow, but may also find themselves powerless to put down the book, because it is immensely entertaining.

Some have called this Stephen King’s “The Stand” for the 21st century. I don’t agree. “The Stand” was, at its heart, a battle between good and evil. “Under the Dome” is about fear — indidividual, group and societal — and how it can be used to control and manipulate even good people into doing terrible things.

King calls this novel “Under the Dome.” He might as well have named it “After the Towers Fell.”

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