cover image Mind Crime of August Saint

Mind Crime of August Saint

Alain Arias-Misson. F2c, $11.95 (420pp) ISBN 978-0-932511-78-2

This mishmash of experimental fiction featuring both imagined and historical characters and scenes of seedy sex and death reads like a collection of first chapters that never lead anywhere. August Saint is an amateur detective who wanders through space, time and media. The most entertaining thing about this novel is the inclusiveness of the characters he meets on his journeys--from Italian film director Pasolini to Captain Kirk and Dr. Spock to Pontius Pilate and Jesus himself, whose crucifixion August eggs on along with a murderous crowd. There is also a lot of talk about the Vatican Connection--a rumored plot to kill Pope John Paul I--and a girl named Elena, whose strange relationships with men are influenced by the fact that she was raised by her two uncles. There are some beautiful descriptions here: When Saint visits a strip club called Lucifer's Follies, he sees a naked female dancer as ``pale, a mollusc deprived of its protective shell.'' But with no narrative structure to hang on to, these passages are meaningless. A coy reference to Leopold Bloom accusing Saint of plagiarism hints at what Arias-Misson ( The Visio-Verbal Sins of a Literary Saint ) is trying to accomplish. (Nov.)