Someone Else

by Peter Learn

We rejoin the hero from Surrender after his rebirth. Cam Dunker is now actively feckless rather than passively resigned. He lives now more in Purgatory than in Inferno. Faced with high voltage lines marching upon his all-girls' school, his wife deserting him to be street artist in Paris, and a demonic windshield wiper, Dunker deals with the gopher problem, struggles to motivate the track team, and looks for the answer to his professional development goals.

The newly renamed Human Commodities Broker insists Dunker hire a plumber as his kindergarten teacher. On the first day of school, he finds the kindergarten girls playing with pipefittings, swearing, and learning how to make coffee. Rather than the disaster Dunker fears, the girls are soon involved in the wildly successful Kindergarten Work Experience Program.

Meanwhile, in grade 2, the girls spend their day with their teacher, Beatrice, making little clay men. When not teaching, Beatrice spends her time complaining about the deteriorating portable she is teaching in and the mould balls growing in her nose.

The signs in front of the church and the tenor of his dreams become increasingly more threatening. The new school superintendent insists Dunker must improve the levels of happiness amongst his school staff in order to make them more productive.

Someone Else is a surrealistic novel in the tradition of Catch 22 but is influenced as well by the Book of Revelation, Animal Farm, and Dante’s Purgatorio. The narrative moves between dreams and reality as it follows the protagonist from the self-help section of the local bookstore to the rapture. Along the way, it takes aim at the corporate cult of enforced happiness, greed, and the concept of leadership.

120 pages, ebook

First published June 11, 2012

About the author

800 years ago in East Prussia, a tiny group of people had a revelation. Adult baptism was the one truth path! They split from their Mennonite brothers/sisters and formed a breakaway group known as the Dunkards. After having been escorted from East Prussia, Switzerland, and New York, our happy little clan ended up in Waterloo, the black walnuts having shown us the way. Even for us, the breeding pool was getting somewhat small and we decided once more to allow breeding with the formerly heathen Mennonites, enabling us to expand our choices to our 2nd and, in some cases, our 3rd cousins.

I married a Scottish/Cherokee woman. My children are thankful.

Reviews

[Peter Learn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adding this independent review:

By
The Kindle Book Review - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)
This review is from: Someone Else (Kindle Edition)
Cam is a befuddled, well-meaning school administrator in a world gone out-of-control. He is confused by a variety of demons: a sinister corporation, a school system so concerned with happiness that there are no other goals, an entrepreneurial plumber turning kindergarten into a plumbing profit center, a fractured marriage, a series of impossible motivational programs, crazed animals and statues, malevolent windshield wipers, and 40 days and nights of rain.

As I was reading, I saw many "tips of the hat" to other off-center writers. There is an acknowledgement section at the end where many of them are listed.

I enjoyed this book, but the end lost me completely. It appeared to be some ultimate good-versus-evil confrontation. As a non-Christian, I'm sure certain things were simply out of my range.

If you are a reader who likes an intellectual challenge, I recommend this book and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I received this book for free in order to review it for the website The Kindle Book Review. I am in no way associated with either the author or his publisher(s).

-- Java Davis, The Kindle Book Review

[Donald Schopflocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly funny satire of primary school.