Journey of the Spiritman

A parable about living and dying that draws inspiration from various cultures and fables. Michael Seymour has his life planned out: He's going to finish school, run in the Olympics, and life will be smooth sailing. But after injuring himself during an important race featuring athletic scouts, Michael doesn't know what to do; he's never lost before. Then his girlfriend, Wendy, breaks up with him, and when he drags his best friend, Mark, out for a few drinks, the night ends with Mark getting stabbed by a man whom Michael hustled at pool. In no time at all, Michael has lost nearly everything. In a fit of anger and pain, he runs out of his house and follows trails that he and Mark used to run. He falls, hits his head, and passes out; he wakes up and sees a gate on the trail that he's never seen before. He steps through it and finds himself in another world, in the middle of a desert, and the gate vanishes. It's the start of a long journey that takes him to Gehenna, a hellish place where people are punished for sins; the Altar of the Cup of All Good Things, where worshippers believe that when a cup, now laying on its side, is righted, all the wrongs of the world will disappear; Paradisa, where Michael could possibly have everything he wants; and finally, Aegypt, where he must face Death. In this brief, inspirational novel, author Mendoza uses aspects of different belief systems, including Christianity, and multiple civilizations, apparently in an attempt to get readers to see their lives in a larger context and to encourage them to live to the fullest. The story moves along briskly, quickly shifting from one culture to the next as Michael pursues his journey. But the speed of the story never hampers the protagonist's character development, and he shows true growth as it proceeds. The setting descriptions are well thought out and give the novella a solid sense of place even when the shifts between them are dramatic, such as the transition from grim Gehenna to the more peaceful Altar. A spiritually minded novel with fine description and characterization. --Kirkus Reviews An inherently absorbing read from cover to cover, Journey of the Spirit Man by author George Mendoza is an extraordinary and original novel by an author with an impressive, entertaining, narrative driven storytelling style making this an especially and unreservedly recommended for community library collections and the personal reading lists of those who appreciated a deftly crafted and memorable read that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book itself is finished and set back upon the shelf. Midwest Book Reviws