THE NOTEBOOKS OF LANA SKIMNEST

by Anselm Atkins

pbk.    244 pgs

Description

In the tradition of Joyce and Nabokov, language is pure joie d'esprit, the plot almost unthinkable as a lecherous monk tries to seduce the teenager, Lana, while her notebooks on ornithology seduce him. She proceeds to an orgy with a library of books. A fantastical, philosophical, satirical, irreverent chase after nature, sex and books for the intelligent lecher, the book is a burst of butterfly color that leads the reader on a mad chase.

Lana Skimnest survives adolescence and her monk's passion and grows up to become a world famous ornithologist who helps discover Peking Man in China after maverick adventures among scientists and academicians. The book is structured around her entries into her notebooks and is a spoof on scholarship by an author who styles hmself as a pedantic, crotchety classicist. A one-time Jesuit monk himself, he is now an accomplished stain glass artist, with a doctorate in Literature and Theology from Emory University.

Anselm Atkins is familiar with the worlds he satirizes: academic, religious,scholarly. His articles have been published in theological journals, Commonweal, the Humanist, Free Inquiry, Journal of Religion, the Thomist, Cross Currents, Journal of Ecumenical Studies. He is an avid ornithologist and bird watcher, and edits Wingbars, the monthly newspaper of the Atlanta Audobon society.