Brian Kindall's Blog - Posts Tagged "delivering-virtue"
Meet the Rogue
Salutations and Bonjour! My name is Didier Rain. I am the primary player in the new novel, DELIVERING VIRTUE, penned by the singularly talented Mister Brian Kindall. Said tome will enjoy its debut in November, and is rumored to be a tantalizing read full of ribald mischief, spiritual mystery, cunning word play, with a large dose of pulse-quickening adventure to boot. It will surely make me famous and financially solvent beyond my most fanciful fictional dreams. If landmark, life-changing narrative is to your liking, then this book, I trust, will not disappoint. It is already receiving flattering accolades among the literati. Some have even compared it to the works of Shakespeare and Milton, although, admittedly, other more critical puritans have been less kind, citing my own humble character as an example of all that is bombastic and disreputable in the analistic byways of American Literature. Phooey! At any rate, you are well advised to investigate this novel’s many merits, as your earthly existence will most assuredly be improved by so doing.
Mister Kindall has asked that I step in for him this week as an intercessor to his usual posting of a blog – a sort of dashing and witty blogular surrogate, if you will. It seems as of late that our scribbler has been overburdened with too much intellectual pursuit and worldly worries to accomplish the obligation of his weekly broadsheet. He is, instead, lying prone and all atremble – a steaming tincture tea within his easy reach, and a cold-press dabbed upon his overtaxed pate. Please forgive Brian his many mortal failings. He understands your addiction to his sterling prose and is, I assure you, wretched and aching with an insuperable guilt over his inability to provide you with a literary opiate more ingenious and insightful than this modest vaudevillian proxy.
Mister Kindall has asked that I step in for him this week as an intercessor to his usual posting of a blog – a sort of dashing and witty blogular surrogate, if you will. It seems as of late that our scribbler has been overburdened with too much intellectual pursuit and worldly worries to accomplish the obligation of his weekly broadsheet. He is, instead, lying prone and all atremble – a steaming tincture tea within his easy reach, and a cold-press dabbed upon his overtaxed pate. Please forgive Brian his many mortal failings. He understands your addiction to his sterling prose and is, I assure you, wretched and aching with an insuperable guilt over his inability to provide you with a literary opiate more ingenious and insightful than this modest vaudevillian proxy.
Delivering Virtue Editor's Choice at Historical Novel Society!
Delivering Virtue has been reviewed by the Historical Novel Society and is an Editor's Choice, which automatically longlists it for the 2017 HNS Indie Award. Here's the review:
"“1854 and Didier Rain doesn’t want to be a rogue. He prefers to think of himself as a gentleman poet. And yet every time Rain finds himself in questionable circumstances, some animal instinct leads him into wrongful behavior. Maybe it’s his Oedipal upbringing that’s to blame. Or maybe he’s just never found a good moral example that hasn’t let him down.”
Brian Kindall creates a memorably delightful character, dissolute, shabby-genteel poet Didier Rain, in order to tell the picaresque story of his latest novel, Delivering Virtue.
In 1854, Rain is approached by the Church of the Resurrected Truth, a splinter Mormon offshoot, and hired as bodyguard to deliver a child named Virtue deep into the Western wilderness so that she can be the bride to their prophet Nehi. The energetic, rambling quest-story that Kindall unfolds from this premise is both gripping and at times semi-comic.
Rain and his little charge encounter lunatics, killers, American Indians, fanatics, and, eventually, the prophet himself and his followers.
As the narrative climaxes and unhinges, Kindall steps up the violence of his narrative and its poignancy, and the combination of action, cynicism and dogged hope (with heavy helpings of magical realism) is oddly effective. A remarkable and sui generis historical novel." - Historical Novel Society
"“1854 and Didier Rain doesn’t want to be a rogue. He prefers to think of himself as a gentleman poet. And yet every time Rain finds himself in questionable circumstances, some animal instinct leads him into wrongful behavior. Maybe it’s his Oedipal upbringing that’s to blame. Or maybe he’s just never found a good moral example that hasn’t let him down.”
Brian Kindall creates a memorably delightful character, dissolute, shabby-genteel poet Didier Rain, in order to tell the picaresque story of his latest novel, Delivering Virtue.
In 1854, Rain is approached by the Church of the Resurrected Truth, a splinter Mormon offshoot, and hired as bodyguard to deliver a child named Virtue deep into the Western wilderness so that she can be the bride to their prophet Nehi. The energetic, rambling quest-story that Kindall unfolds from this premise is both gripping and at times semi-comic.
Rain and his little charge encounter lunatics, killers, American Indians, fanatics, and, eventually, the prophet himself and his followers.
As the narrative climaxes and unhinges, Kindall steps up the violence of his narrative and its poignancy, and the combination of action, cynicism and dogged hope (with heavy helpings of magical realism) is oddly effective. A remarkable and sui generis historical novel." - Historical Novel Society
I Am Not Dead
I’m not dead.
I’m not on a long sea voyage, abducted by aliens, working undercover, or mad at you.
I am, however, writing another novel.
Which is why you’ve not heard from me lately.
It takes all my time.
Hopefully that’s reassuring and makes you glad. Hopefully you’re looking forward to me being finished with the dang thing so you can see how much I’ve changed, or buy me lunch. And hopefully, of course, you’re eager to read it. I’m certainly eager to show it to you.
I think it’s a good one. Maybe even the best book ever. A real life changer. It’s one of those struggles between good and evil. Lots of laughs. Lots of heartache. Death. Sex. Wordplay. And magical goats. The ultimate adventure. All wrapped up in an allegorical pâté of religious satire and dark vaudevillian comedy played out on a tropical island. The hero is a ne’er-do-well scalawag. Albeit, with a heart of gold.
Anyway, you’ll just have to wait and see.
It’s almost done.
Getting closer every day.
Until then, just in case you were wondering –
I’m not dead.
I’m not on a long sea voyage, abducted by aliens, working undercover, or mad at you.
I am, however, writing another novel.
Which is why you’ve not heard from me lately.
It takes all my time.
Hopefully that’s reassuring and makes you glad. Hopefully you’re looking forward to me being finished with the dang thing so you can see how much I’ve changed, or buy me lunch. And hopefully, of course, you’re eager to read it. I’m certainly eager to show it to you.
I think it’s a good one. Maybe even the best book ever. A real life changer. It’s one of those struggles between good and evil. Lots of laughs. Lots of heartache. Death. Sex. Wordplay. And magical goats. The ultimate adventure. All wrapped up in an allegorical pâté of religious satire and dark vaudevillian comedy played out on a tropical island. The hero is a ne’er-do-well scalawag. Albeit, with a heart of gold.
Anyway, you’ll just have to wait and see.
It’s almost done.
Getting closer every day.
Until then, just in case you were wondering –
I’m not dead.
