Smiling Through The Apocalypse

October 2003

Numerous studies on various aspects of the issues of the 1960s have been written over the past 35 years, but few have so successfully integrated the many-sided components into a coherent, synthetic, and reliable book that combines good storytelling with sound scholarly analysis.

The second volume in the definitive biography of the acclaimed playwright

This volume offers new insight into the contextual background and literary-historical impact of Norman Mailer's body of work.

Generations ago, angel Remiel chose to renounce heaven and live on Earth. He found a place among ordinary humans by converting himself into Boston P.I. Remy Chandler, but he can never tell anyone who he was or that he still has angelic powers. Remy can will himself invisible, speak and understand any foreign language (including any animal language), and hear the thoughts of others. All these secret powers come in handy for a private investigator, especially when the Angel of Death goes missing and he’s assigned to find him. As he gets deeper into the investigation, he realizes this is not a missing persons case but a conspiracy to destroy the human race and only Remy has the powers to stop the forces of evil.

Readers can join the Absurd Sojourns and Spirit-mind quests of the author over a couple of decades in which in two centuries collide. Eternal satirical questions are considered in part one: Can literary giants such as Shakespeare, Hemingway and Faulkner explain why the chicken crossed the road? Is Little Richard the epitome of philosophic simplism? Can dark sibling Forrest Grump find reconciliation and also direct? Can Snake Pleskin escape both Sedona and Iraq? Does the white man’s manifest destiny include photo ops with pliant Indians and black kids with watermelons? Can a novice movie reviewer separate bombs and bombshells? Will Christians, Jews and Muslims continue to kill each other with expensive explosives and send us the bill? How can the herdings of cats lead to wealth and fame? And in part two ... humans have a spiritual endowment and personal mission they can't begin to imagine. Is your own personal Truth-Beauty-Goodness your very best religion? Will you consider 21 new spiritual enlightenments for the 21st century? How have slavery, segregation and other acrimonious separations contributed to a malaise of spiritual poverty in the deep South? Are you persuaded by the spiritual realities expressed by a celestial Melchizedek? Did you know that the practice of Stillness can lead to fortuitous contact with spiritual teachers representing our Universal Father? Both parts lift the reader into a philosophical framework that combines perceptive topical humor and a sound path to weave personal spiritual growth into a crazy world.