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Fiction
Father Daniel journeys deep into the harsh forest, with romantic notions of converting the fierce Oquanato cannibals to Christianity, but his heroic sense of mission clashes with the farcical antics of sophisticated savages -- a source that rattles Daniel into an introspective, yet dubious narrative.
212 pages
First published March 1, 2009
About the author
Ara 13
6 books1 followerAra 13 is a 2008 IPPY "Outstanding Book of the Year" winner, a recipient of an Eric Hoffer Book Award, and a Marine Corps journalist awarded medals from four branches of the U.S. military.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 12, 2019
Like its predecessor, Drawers & Booths, Fiction is both amusing and thought-provoking, and not to mention occasionally disorienting. It is best described as a combination of Heart of Darkness and Catch-22, if you can stretch your mind enough to imagine such an astonishing thing. The plot at first glance is very straightforward: a priest named Father Daniel is traveling deep into the jungle with the romantic vision of converting a fabled tribe of ferocious cannibals. What he finds instead are sophisticated and knowledgeable hunter-gatherers whose religion, like his own, is based on a singular holy book. The twist comes when he learns just what book it is, and the reader is then treated to 13's trademark screwball logic whose mental gymnastics cleverly and effectively force a serious reconsideration of the nature of God, man, and morality. Fiction has, to borrow the words of Joseph Heller, an "elliptical precision about its perfect pairs and parts that [is] graceful and shocking." Once again, you can prepare to have many of your preconceived notions gleefully disputed.
Of course, the comedy eventually goes dark once the ugly (pun intended) side of spiritual zeal and legalism also make themselves known. You'll never quite look at children's literature the same way again.
Now that being said, Fiction is nevertheless not without its glitches. Ara 13's specialty is extreme metafiction, in which the devices of fiction are self-evident and the reader is never allowed to forget that they are engaged with a work of art. In Drawers & Booths 13 used this metafictional structure to brilliantly illustrate what he perceives to be the conundrum of viewing reality through the man-made lens of theism. He attempts a similar project here, although the plotline is more traditional. Like Heart of Darkness, it is first and foremost the protagonist (Daniel) telling his tale to another character (his grandson) at an unspecified time in the future (although in this case a third-person narration is utilized). 13 goes beyond Conrad, however, by adding yet more layers to his story. We are intermittently taken outside even that narrative and into the viewpoints of other individuals who have encountered Father Daniel. On the one hand, it's an interesting mechanism that emphasizes individual subjectivity and its role in organizing reality, which ultimately means that any first-hand personal account is inherently unreliable.
Unfortunately, it also creates confusion. The story will be gliding smoothly along when all of a sudden - plop, we're in a whole different setting – with characters we'd either almost forgotten about or never even met before – that has seemingly nothing at all to do with the travails of Father Daniel. I understand that 13 is probably trying to frame Daniel in a greater context and perhaps trying to emphasize that no narrative exists in a vacuum. But if that is the case, I'm not sure he quite pulled it off. Plus, the overall tone of the work subsequently feels unstable at times as it veers from serious and grounded to palpably satirical and then back again. (A very striking exception, however, was the tragic figure of GhAttu.)
And it is also for those reasons that the book really slows down in some places, as it is also difficult to be actually interested in these peripheral characters, several of whom aren't even particularly memorable. Luckily, Quan and MillardFillmore, two natives who are either incredibly brilliant or incredibly stupid, more than make up for this, as does the zany patter between Daniel, King Manaloa Ha, and Manaloa Ha's court on the subject of Sacred Books. The farcically ominous ending was also very well done and quite surprising in its topsy-turviness.
All in all, Fiction is a good book but not a great one. Anyone seeking a light, quick read will likely feel somewhat let down, although more astute folks should pick up on the underlying themes and the questions they post. Fiction is nevertheless original and thought-provoking in its own way and those of us more familiar with Ara 13's work will definitely appreciate this new variation on the topic of faith and reality. (But I do recommend reading Drawers & Booths first.)
Review Copy
Original Review
Of course, the comedy eventually goes dark once the ugly (pun intended) side of spiritual zeal and legalism also make themselves known. You'll never quite look at children's literature the same way again.
Now that being said, Fiction is nevertheless not without its glitches. Ara 13's specialty is extreme metafiction, in which the devices of fiction are self-evident and the reader is never allowed to forget that they are engaged with a work of art. In Drawers & Booths 13 used this metafictional structure to brilliantly illustrate what he perceives to be the conundrum of viewing reality through the man-made lens of theism. He attempts a similar project here, although the plotline is more traditional. Like Heart of Darkness, it is first and foremost the protagonist (Daniel) telling his tale to another character (his grandson) at an unspecified time in the future (although in this case a third-person narration is utilized). 13 goes beyond Conrad, however, by adding yet more layers to his story. We are intermittently taken outside even that narrative and into the viewpoints of other individuals who have encountered Father Daniel. On the one hand, it's an interesting mechanism that emphasizes individual subjectivity and its role in organizing reality, which ultimately means that any first-hand personal account is inherently unreliable.
Unfortunately, it also creates confusion. The story will be gliding smoothly along when all of a sudden - plop, we're in a whole different setting – with characters we'd either almost forgotten about or never even met before – that has seemingly nothing at all to do with the travails of Father Daniel. I understand that 13 is probably trying to frame Daniel in a greater context and perhaps trying to emphasize that no narrative exists in a vacuum. But if that is the case, I'm not sure he quite pulled it off. Plus, the overall tone of the work subsequently feels unstable at times as it veers from serious and grounded to palpably satirical and then back again. (A very striking exception, however, was the tragic figure of GhAttu.)
And it is also for those reasons that the book really slows down in some places, as it is also difficult to be actually interested in these peripheral characters, several of whom aren't even particularly memorable. Luckily, Quan and MillardFillmore, two natives who are either incredibly brilliant or incredibly stupid, more than make up for this, as does the zany patter between Daniel, King Manaloa Ha, and Manaloa Ha's court on the subject of Sacred Books. The farcically ominous ending was also very well done and quite surprising in its topsy-turviness.
All in all, Fiction is a good book but not a great one. Anyone seeking a light, quick read will likely feel somewhat let down, although more astute folks should pick up on the underlying themes and the questions they post. Fiction is nevertheless original and thought-provoking in its own way and those of us more familiar with Ara 13's work will definitely appreciate this new variation on the topic of faith and reality. (But I do recommend reading Drawers & Booths first.)
Review Copy
Original Review
June 17, 2009
Meta is a Greek prefix that in English is used to mean something self referential. If you run a blog or a website, you know meta in the form of metatags. Fiction a novel by the oddly named Ara 13 is metafiction — a book that draws attention to its own fictionality to open a discussion about the barrier between fact and fiction.
At its most basic level, Fiction is yet another missionary on a quest to convert "savages" to Christianity. It's right there with The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiesen and to a lesser degree Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. In Fiction, the missionary is a priest, Father Daniel who has gone in search of the "fierce Oquanato cannibals" whom he hopes to convert to Christianity.
Instead of just presenting the entire story from the priest's point of view and watching him slowly either sink into madness, go native or lose his life in the failed process of the mission. Instead, Fiction presents both sides of story and uses very similar language for both parties. The tribe members speak in a slang that's quirky but no different than any other small group of people. By making creating recognizable and memorable characters, Ara 13 opens the dialogue between "civilized" and "savage" morals.
In that dialogue the belief system of the tribe begins to come to light. Other reviews giveaway the source material for their bible but I'm not going to do that. A big part of the fun of Fiction is figuring out what their good book is. The choice of source material works. It's full of many of the same themes as the Bible but its probably never thought of in those terms. Dreamybee asked if the choice felt gimmicky to me. No. It made me laugh and then it made me think but at no time did it strike me as a gimmick.
The final third of the book deals with the aftermath of Father Daniel discovering the truth behind their religious beliefs. The dialogue ends with both sides accusing the other of believing in fiction.
One question I've been asked by Gautami Tripathy if I would read more books by Ara 13. The short answer is yes. He has another novel out, Drawers & Booth (2007) that I hope to read some day.
At its most basic level, Fiction is yet another missionary on a quest to convert "savages" to Christianity. It's right there with The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiesen and to a lesser degree Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. In Fiction, the missionary is a priest, Father Daniel who has gone in search of the "fierce Oquanato cannibals" whom he hopes to convert to Christianity.
Instead of just presenting the entire story from the priest's point of view and watching him slowly either sink into madness, go native or lose his life in the failed process of the mission. Instead, Fiction presents both sides of story and uses very similar language for both parties. The tribe members speak in a slang that's quirky but no different than any other small group of people. By making creating recognizable and memorable characters, Ara 13 opens the dialogue between "civilized" and "savage" morals.
In that dialogue the belief system of the tribe begins to come to light. Other reviews giveaway the source material for their bible but I'm not going to do that. A big part of the fun of Fiction is figuring out what their good book is. The choice of source material works. It's full of many of the same themes as the Bible but its probably never thought of in those terms. Dreamybee asked if the choice felt gimmicky to me. No. It made me laugh and then it made me think but at no time did it strike me as a gimmick.
The final third of the book deals with the aftermath of Father Daniel discovering the truth behind their religious beliefs. The dialogue ends with both sides accusing the other of believing in fiction.
One question I've been asked by Gautami Tripathy if I would read more books by Ara 13. The short answer is yes. He has another novel out, Drawers & Booth (2007) that I hope to read some day.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews