CHASING CHICKENS

A rumination on the transcendence of love, framed within an exploration of world religions and the psychology of relationships.

Supported by a tenuous plot about workplace sabotage, this cerebral stab at finding the key to spiritual bliss pits the overwrought mind of publishing house senior writer Walter Cephalo against the down-to-earth wisdom of bartender Pat Mackenzie. A man of agnostic leanings and limitless pop-culture references, Walter is up against a deadline: write a short introduction to Creeds That Conquered Civilizations, a major compendium of religious history that, interestingly, has no named author. In his effort to encapsulate religion’s commonalities and synthesize them into the meaning of life, Walter engages in extensive discussions with his coworkers, a Yoda-like priest and homeless proselytizers bearing the unsubtle names Beezel and Aslan. Such dialogue-based action makes for a claustrophobic world—one in which Walter moves between his boarding house (with the requisite nosy landlady), office and local bar—all the while trapping the reader in his feverish brain. Thankfully, he also converses with Pat, a character refreshingly tethered to reality. This widowed single mother hasn’t time to engage in the navel-gazing that renders her admirer “existentially blocked” throughout the workday. Nor has she the inclination to put up with Walter’s dishonesty about his involvement with Maggie, a sensible, if heartless, woman who bounds up the corporate ladder while her male counterparts compete for the cleverest commentary. Despite the soul-searching—and often illuminating—conversations with Father Hoda, it is Pat who teaches Walter about love, and to lean on his spirit, not on his mind. Early on he sees her as a woman taking “simple delight in being alive”—it turns out that’s not just a description, but an apt prescription for the talking heads that populate this tale. Light on romance, but readers interested in exploring their own beliefs will find healthy challenges and even a little enlightenment.