Book report | Lake Neuron

My brother and sister-in-law, knowing of my fondness for “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” bought me a copy of Ferguson’s novel, “Between The Bridge and The River,” for my birthday. It arrived last week; I finished it today (my actual birthday isn’t until tomorrow, and I won’t celebrate with the rest of the family until next weekend).

I enjoyed the book immensely. Of course, the book has a universalist, just-be-nice-to-people theme that (as readers of Neuron’s Cove will recognize) I don’t necessarily subscribe to. It’s also bawdy in spots, so don’t buy it for your grandmother.

But it’s a good read, a lot of fun, and has a wonderful upbeat ending. (“Profane on its surface, ethical at its core, and always fun,” according to the Kirkus Reviews jacket blurb.) Its criticisms of organized religion and the ways in which it can be exploited for personal gain ring very true. The writing style calls to mind Douglas Adams in spots, and the road-trip subplot in the second half of the book made me think of one of my favorite novels, “Handling Sin” by Michael Malone.

The book has several concurrent plots playing themselves out. George and Fraser are introduced as childhood friends in Scotland at the beginning of the novel, but then they go their separate ways. Fraser is a TV evangelist who flees the U.K. after being exposed in a sex scandal. Dreams in which he converses with Carl Jung, and a near-death experience, eventually lead to a spiritual epiphany of sorts. George, meanwhile, is diagnosed with the same cancer that killed both his parents; he runs off to Paris and finds solace in the arms of a woman who has, quite innocently, survived numerous lovers, becoming sort of a benign “black widow.”

Meanwhile, in the U.S., two half-brothers — the secret and illegitimate children of Frank Sinatra (Leon) and Peter Lawford (Saul) — become snake handlers at a remote country church, then Hollywood heavyweights, then founders of their own religion. Clueless Leon inherits his father’s musical ability and way with the ladies, while Saul becomes his obese, warped and manipulative manager.

Ferguson did not train to be a talk show host; in fact, he’s written two movies and directed one of them. So this is a real novel, not a ghost-written attempt to cash in on TV fame. Ferguson’s style is breezy, fun and irreverent, much you’d expect from the storytelling in his “Late Late Show” monologues.

A good read, and a good birthday present.

Anonymous

Consider:
The missing element in every human ‘solution’ is
an accurate definition of the creature.

The way we define ‘human’ determines our view
of self, others, relationships, institutions, life, and
future. Important? Only the Creator who made us
in His own image is qualified to define us accurately.
Choose wisely…there are results.

Many problems in human experience are the result of
false and inaccurate definitions of humankind premised
in man-made religions and humanistic philosophies.

Each individual human being possesses a unique, highly
developed, and sensitive perception of diversity. Thus
aware, man is endowed with a natural capability for enact-
ing internal mental and external physical selectivity.
Quantitative and qualitative choice-making thus lends
itself as the superior basis of an active intelligence.

Human is earth’s Choicemaker. His title describes
his definitive and typifying characteristic. Recall
that his other features are but vehicles of experi-
ence intent on the development of perceptive
awareness and the following acts of decision and
choice. Note that the products of man cannot define
him for they are the fruit of the discerning choice-
making process and include the cognition of self,
the utility of experience, the development of value-
measuring systems and language, and the accultur-
ation of civilization.

The arts and the sciences of man, as with his habits,
customs, and traditions, are the creative harvest of
his perceptive and selective powers. Creativity, the
creative process, is a choice-making process. His
articles, constructs, and commodities, however
marvelous to behold, deserve neither awe nor idol-
atry, for man, not his contrivance, is earth’s own
highest expression of the creative process.

Human is earth’s Choicemaker. The sublime and
significant act of choosing is, itself, the Archimedean
fulcrum upon which man levers and redirects the
forces of cause and effect to an elected level of qual-
ity and diversity. Further, it orients him toward a
natural environmental opportunity, freedom, and
bestows earth’s title, The Choicemaker, on his
singular and plural brow.

Human is earth’s Choicemaker. Psalm 25:12 He is by
nature and nature’s God a creature of Choice – and of
Criteria. Psalm 119:30,173 His unique and definitive
characteristic is, and of Right ought to be, the natural
foundation of his environments, institutions, and re-
spectful relations to his fellow-man. Thus, he is orien-
ted to a Freedom whose roots are in the Order of the
universe.

Let us proclaim it. Behold!
The Season of Generation-Choicemaker Joel 3:14 KJV

– from The HUMAN PARADIGM
http://www.choicemaker.net/ James Fletcher Baxter

Consider:
The missing element in every human ‘solution’ is
an accurate definition of the creature.

The way we define ‘human’ determines our view
of self, others, relationships, institutions, life, and
future. Important? Only the Creator who made us
in His own image is qualified to define us accurately.
Choose wisely…there are results.

Many problems in human experience are the result of
false and inaccurate definitions of humankind premised
in man-made religions and humanistic philosophies.

Each individual human being possesses a unique, highly
developed, and sensitive perception of diversity. Thus
aware, man is endowed with a natural capability for enact-
ing internal mental and external physical selectivity.
Quantitative and qualitative choice-making thus lends
itself as the superior basis of an active intelligence.

Human is earth’s Choicemaker. His title describes
his definitive and typifying characteristic. Recall
that his other features are but vehicles of experi-
ence intent on the development of perceptive
awareness and the following acts of decision and
choice. Note that the products of man cannot define
him for they are the fruit of the discerning choice-
making process and include the cognition of self,
the utility of experience, the development of value-
measuring systems and language, and the accultur-
ation of civilization.

The arts and the sciences of man, as with his habits,
customs, and traditions, are the creative harvest of
his perceptive and selective powers. Creativity, the
creative process, is a choice-making process. His
articles, constructs, and commodities, however
marvelous to behold, deserve neither awe nor idol-
atry, for man, not his contrivance, is earth’s own
highest expression of the creative process.

Human is earth’s Choicemaker. The sublime and
significant act of choosing is, itself, the Archimedean
fulcrum upon which man levers and redirects the
forces of cause and effect to an elected level of qual-
ity and diversity. Further, it orients him toward a
natural environmental opportunity, freedom, and
bestows earth’s title, The Choicemaker, on his
singular and plural brow.

Human is earth’s Choicemaker. Psalm 25:12 He is by
nature and nature’s God a creature of Choice – and of
Criteria. Psalm 119:30,173 His unique and definitive
characteristic is, and of Right ought to be, the natural
foundation of his environments, institutions, and re-
spectful relations to his fellow-man. Thus, he is orien-
ted to a Freedom whose roots are in the Order of the
universe.

Let us proclaim it. Behold!
The Season of Generation-Choicemaker Joel 3:14 KJV

– from The HUMAN PARADIGM
http://lakeneuron.com John

Ooookay ….

I suspect this is comment spam, since it doesn’t really have anything to do with my post about the Ferguson book, but since I’m not 100 percent sure I’ll leave it up for now.
http://lakeneuron.com John

Ooookay ….

I suspect this is comment spam, since it doesn’t really have anything to do with my post about the Ferguson book, but since I’m not 100 percent sure I’ll leave it up for now.
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