| ||||||||||||
| Category: Fiction:Humor | |
| About the Book | |
|
R. Da Voste attends a friend’s estate auction and buys an antique writing desk, hoping to discover some hidden artifact of great value. When he finds only a spent strip of toy “caps,” he begins fantasizing about the desk’s original owner -- what kind of person he was, and what kind of life he led. Pursuing his vision, and “summoning his fearsome powers of concentration and deduction,” Da Voste illumines the persona of Charles A. Pistule, whose life ambition was to discover a set of Rules for the Ordinary Life. These Rules, or “Pistulates,” are revealed as aphoric post-scripts to a series of personal episodes, which Charles Pistule records faithfully in his Journal. We follow Charles through these fictional episodes, realizing that they depict an exaggerated picture of “ordinary” life, but also recognizing that the harsh confrontations they present are part of the real, commerce-driven, media-hyped culture that we have been asked to accept as normal. Charles does not accept the “normal” role he is asked to play – at least, not willingly. He struggles against it as best he can. Observing his discomforts gives us an opportunity to examine some aspects of the cultural fabric that has been woven so seamlessly and persuasively that we may never see it for what it is – a shroud.
|
|
| About the Author | |
 |
Author of many compellingly creative novels that benefit from his broad range of personal, interpersonal, and extra-personal experiences, and recognized on numerous continents for his deep insights and passion for his audience – none of these things may be said of R. Da Voste, who resents those of whom it might. |