| abstract |
Hunting the Holy Man is a 359-page novel of contemporary fiction, set in Vietnam and Thailand during the War in Vietnam — 1971, to locate it precisely. At its most fundamental level, it is a story about a hunt. A beleaguered US Army Catholic chaplain has seen too much of the randomness and horror of death. He deserts the infantry in Vietnam and flees to Thailand where he intends to become a Buddhist monk. The Army dispatches the story's protagonist to track down and arrest the AWOL priest and return him to face justice. But his hunt comes unraveled when a provocative Thai policewoman assigned as his interpreter and guide, and a sagacious old Buddhist monk set about to redeem his hardened and cynical heart — a warrior's heart, antithetical to deferential Thai culture and erudite Buddhist morality.
That said, Hunting the Holy Man is ultimately a story about the realization of goals — those known and those unknown — and the transformation experienced by the main characters, en route. The protagonist's transformation is decidedly the most profound, owing to the greater psychological and spiritual distance he must travel. His quest is to name and uncover the essence of his anger and cynicism. But these afflictions are buried deep in the recesses of his psyche and unknown to his waking life — a life consumed by bloodlust for the hunt. His transformation is a transcendent religious experience, and it occurs when mystical forces arise and overpower him with a life-changing vision, imbuing him with the one virtue that is fervently prayed for, but rarely achieved: forgiveness. And with this righteous virtue manifested in his character, he is absolved of his former malicious cynicism. He is made new by this undeserved gift. He enters the story as a faithless and crass, God-hating anti-hero, and he emerges at the conclusion as a new and reconstructed creature.
The novel also has a lot to say about religion and morality along the way. And yet Hunting the Holy Man does not make overt, prescriptive or normative claims about religion. It is not a "religious" novel in that sense. Rather, it is a combination of noir and religion and, 50 years on, presents a story that shows there are yet more redemptive lessons to be drawn from that infamous war in Vietnam.
The story also weaves through the Buddhist and Christian faiths — both having histories rich with profound mystical and transformative experiences. It hopefully provides a place of reconciliation for those who have tried to stand with their feet in both of these worlds. The novel does make the moral claim that the acquisition of "forgiveness" is a supreme good, no matter how acquired. And it asks the reader to consider how our lives can be transformed by this virtue — instilled, by God's grace, into our unwitting souls through the power of sacred intercession.
Perhaps such a redemptive message offers a measure of hope.
|
