Monday, December 7, 2009
Read the first two chapters for free!
You can read the first two chapters of Forgiving Ararat on http://www.forgivingararat.com/! As both a fan and publicist for this book, I'm really curious to see people's reactions to it.
Review of Forgiving Ararat
It is the rare person who does not stop and occasionally wonder what really happens to us when we die. First-time novelist Gita Nazareth's Forgiving Ararat explores this very question in a way not yet seen in our literary canon. From its lyrical beginnings, we are swept into a world beyond death that is both foreign and yet achingly familiar.
We meet Brek Cuttler immediately after her death, sitting in a deserted train station that we later learn is the heart of Nazareth's imagined afterlife world of Shemaya. Shemaya is both magical and beautiful, and yet is simultaneously filled with lawyers and trials and other familiar human terrains, a focus clearly reflected in the early images of the rundown train-station bench and building. As she is initiated into the world of the dead, she finds herself at her beloved great-grandmother Nana's house and with a new job at the train station. As she was a lawyer in life, in death she is asked to be a presenter for those getting ready to stand trial before God for the Final Judgment. From here she is caught up in an unfolding drama of history and the consequences of human choice that eventually, in an unforgettable climax, leads her face to face with her killer.
This book reads like a fantasy novel, with the emergence of the afterlife as a parallel world filled with such curiosities as simultaneous seasons, limitless shopping excursions in empty malls, and cars that navigate the roads without drivers or passengers. These early images of life after death come together to form a world that is at once comforting to consider (as Brek is cared for by loved ones long gone) and yet somehow missing something rather essential, something quite vital to what we the living understand to be "life." What results is a version of the afterlife both poignant and heartbreaking as Brek struggles to come to terms with not only the circumstances of her death but the tenets by which she lived her life. The reader is reminded again and again of Brek's plight and what she has lost in the emptiness of the streets, the haunting images of aspects of her former life forever frozen in time in the home she once shared with her husband and daughter: dirty dishes out on the counter, a half-empty dog dish, her infant daughter's favorite jumper slung over the rail of the crib. Likewise, peppered throughout the story are glimpses that remind us of what she stands to gain, threads of hope and light that can be traced through the recounting of familiar Bible stories reconfigured and retold, and are visually accentuated by images of flourishing gardens, rainbows, and the endless possibilities of cocreation.
The heaven Brek enters is filled with trials and lawyers as she moves to fulfill her "destiny" of being a presenter for those who are coming before God for judgment. Thus, more recent teachings of many contemporary religions in the living world that place a greater focus on universal love and forgiveness are replaced by a more antiquated singular focus on justice and the law. Indeed, this world of Shemaya is posited as "where the final battle is fought between good and evil." Yet to Brek, unfairness and injustice seem to lurk everywhere she looks. Trials appear not to contain the entire life story, focusing instead on the transgressions, and she resolves that in her tenure as presenter, things will be different. Ultimately what we discover is that while for Brek in life, justice is the only salvation, in death, the consequences of that conviction become all too real.
At times literary and prophetic, Forgiving Ararat speaks of the truths that many of us in the living world are reluctant to face. Better yet, it is a compelling story that keeps us turning the pages quickly till the end. Exploring core human issues of judgment and forgiveness, conviction and faith, hatred and love, and our unending search for meaning in this life, Forgiving Ararat speaks to all who have ever sought to understand the complexities of the world we live in.
We meet Brek Cuttler immediately after her death, sitting in a deserted train station that we later learn is the heart of Nazareth's imagined afterlife world of Shemaya. Shemaya is both magical and beautiful, and yet is simultaneously filled with lawyers and trials and other familiar human terrains, a focus clearly reflected in the early images of the rundown train-station bench and building. As she is initiated into the world of the dead, she finds herself at her beloved great-grandmother Nana's house and with a new job at the train station. As she was a lawyer in life, in death she is asked to be a presenter for those getting ready to stand trial before God for the Final Judgment. From here she is caught up in an unfolding drama of history and the consequences of human choice that eventually, in an unforgettable climax, leads her face to face with her killer.
This book reads like a fantasy novel, with the emergence of the afterlife as a parallel world filled with such curiosities as simultaneous seasons, limitless shopping excursions in empty malls, and cars that navigate the roads without drivers or passengers. These early images of life after death come together to form a world that is at once comforting to consider (as Brek is cared for by loved ones long gone) and yet somehow missing something rather essential, something quite vital to what we the living understand to be "life." What results is a version of the afterlife both poignant and heartbreaking as Brek struggles to come to terms with not only the circumstances of her death but the tenets by which she lived her life. The reader is reminded again and again of Brek's plight and what she has lost in the emptiness of the streets, the haunting images of aspects of her former life forever frozen in time in the home she once shared with her husband and daughter: dirty dishes out on the counter, a half-empty dog dish, her infant daughter's favorite jumper slung over the rail of the crib. Likewise, peppered throughout the story are glimpses that remind us of what she stands to gain, threads of hope and light that can be traced through the recounting of familiar Bible stories reconfigured and retold, and are visually accentuated by images of flourishing gardens, rainbows, and the endless possibilities of cocreation.
The heaven Brek enters is filled with trials and lawyers as she moves to fulfill her "destiny" of being a presenter for those who are coming before God for judgment. Thus, more recent teachings of many contemporary religions in the living world that place a greater focus on universal love and forgiveness are replaced by a more antiquated singular focus on justice and the law. Indeed, this world of Shemaya is posited as "where the final battle is fought between good and evil." Yet to Brek, unfairness and injustice seem to lurk everywhere she looks. Trials appear not to contain the entire life story, focusing instead on the transgressions, and she resolves that in her tenure as presenter, things will be different. Ultimately what we discover is that while for Brek in life, justice is the only salvation, in death, the consequences of that conviction become all too real.
At times literary and prophetic, Forgiving Ararat speaks of the truths that many of us in the living world are reluctant to face. Better yet, it is a compelling story that keeps us turning the pages quickly till the end. Exploring core human issues of judgment and forgiveness, conviction and faith, hatred and love, and our unending search for meaning in this life, Forgiving Ararat speaks to all who have ever sought to understand the complexities of the world we live in.
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