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INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION:
Alternative Publishing - Is it viable to traditional publishing?
WHERE: Art Lounge - Sunaparanta, Near Lar de Estudantes, Altinho, Panaji
WHEN: September 30, 2009 - 5:30pm
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=146588805806&mid=12a68daG1df3c3d3G2ac936fG7
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A Sexy Story
A Review of:
The Priest and His Karma, Ben Antao, publishamerica.com, Baltimore, 2009.
The author Ben Antao is in many ways like Sebastian Lobo, the
protagonist of his latest novel The Priest and His Karma. He has an
excellent nose for a good story. His book deals with two of the three
themes which interest most people – sex and religion. Antao gets
priests, paedophiles, prostitutes, gays; and even a nice gora girl and
a tormented Goan guy to have sex. These scenes are either alluded to
or described graphically.
The Priest and His Karma starts with a strange Prologue first
featuring a troubled Padre; and then Demons exulting in a dreamlike
scene. (Demons and dreams keep recurring in this book sometimes
creating suspense as in the opening chapter but at other times holding
up the action) One does not know what to make of this Prologue at
first, for the following chapters centre around Sebastian Lobo a
reporter. Its significance will emerge only at the end.
The book is set in Goa, Bombay and Canada. Lobo works with a Goan
paper and has a great interest in the Catholic religion. Through this
character Antao is able to describe various events important to Goan
Catholics in the '60s like an Exposition of the relics of St. Francis
Xavier and the visit of Pope Paul VI to India in 1964.
Lobo has a sensational story up his sleeve. But before he breaks it he
wangles the assignment of covering Pope Paul VI's visit - a remarkable
event at the time as Popes weren't known to travel much in those days.
Ultimately his sensational story never gets to be written as Lobo
gets enmeshed first in the Papal visit and then in matters sexual.
Among other things he drifts into a homosexual affair.
Just as one wonders how he can get out of the mess he makes of his
personal life an unbelievable stroke of luck comes his way. His editor
sends him to Canada to cover the Expo '67, a great cultural
extravaganza to celebrate the country's centennial. Here Antao manages
to transform the book from an examination of the lower depths of
Bombay's sex scene in the sixties into a mushy Mills and Boon romance
as Lobo finds true love in a liberated Canadian hippy who in reality
is the nice-girl-next-door.
Unfortunately for him, some ghosts from the past continue to haunt
him, and he has to go back to Goa to come to terms with his past. This
gives Antao a chance to give yet another twist to his tortuous plot in
a surprise ending.
Although the themes that he deals with - sex and religion - are a
pretty heady mix one feels a bit let down by Antao's treatment of
them. Perhaps that's because these themes are not sufficiently
informed by that third great human interest factor – politics. The
great financial and sexual scandals that have plagued the Roman
Catholic Church globally could have perhaps better set off the events
in the book.
Also Antao misses out on the opportunity to delve into the economic
and social causes that result in children and women and sometimes men
being sexually exploited. And by writing about homosexuality as if it
were a perversion and a matter for guilt and shame makes the novel
seem a trifle shallow in this day and age.
Having said that, The Priest and His Karma does invite the reader to
reflect on some controversial subject matter and relate it to real
life incidents that one may have come across or read about.
This novel continues this author's experiments with publishing.
This time his book is printed using the print-on-demand method. It can
be ordered from the website publishamerica.com
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This review was published in the Sunday Mirror supplement of Herald Goa of
27 September.
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--
Augusto Pinto
40, Novo Portugal,
Moira, Bardez,
Goa, India
E pinto...@gmail.com or ypinto...@yahoo.co.in
P 0832-2470336
M 9881126350
