Carnal Sacraments, A Historical Novel of
the Future
The New Novel By Perry Brass
Ah, yes! Finally a new book by Perry
Brass, from Belhue Press. I
know
you've been waiting a while—and probably have
asked, "What took you so long." So here are the
excuses:
A) I wanted this to be a great book. (O.K. I know. You
think that's b.s.—every writer wants his book to be a great book. But
it's true. I did.)
B) For about 6 months, after The Substance of God came out, I
worked on a screenplay version of The
Harvest, my "science politico" novel that deals with cloning and
the sale of human organs and body parts. I got seduced by Hollywood,
and as the late Anna Nicole Smith could have told you, that can be
fatal, or at least head-pounding for any writer. I was contacted by a
young
producer/director who'd read the book. Loved it. And thought it would
make a great movie, if I could come up with a screenplay to start the
commotion off. I did—and liked working on it. It was difficult—most
smart writers don't try to adapt their own work, they are too close to
it—but I did, and liked how the novel morphed into a screen "property."
(Memo to self: there is a reason why screenplays, pound for pound, are
among America's most valued products.) Anyway, I trudged on with the
screenplay, and tried like hell to hustle it along with said young
producer/director.
However, my Hollywood friend (Daniel Ferrands,
who directs low-budget horror movies), as they often do, got
sidetracked onto "other projects," leaving me with a screenplay I could
not sell on my own, now that Hollywood is pretty much a closed shop.
End of story. But not an unusual sad one for any scribe in the 21st
century.
C) I actually finished another book, but felt this was not
what I wanted to publish after The
Substance of God. So, like any
publisher, I rejected my own book. Maybe it will come out at another
point, but I could not get behind it. It was the book that got away,
one of those orphan tomes writers keep to themselves, that sometime
resurface, either to embarrass them, or make a killing.
(O.K. who's joking whom?)
D) Anyway, that left me, finally, with the glimmer of the
glimmer of an idea: a man who is kept young and alive by the job he
has, and how he struggles to stay that way. It was going to be our
over-worked, 24/7 lives now, telescoped into the future, into the year
2075. And so, like in any novel getting born, a series of images and
feelings, just raw feelings, came to me. Then characters, situations,
plot—and the the life itself of the book. That thing that makes a book
come alive—action, all sorts of actions, connecting human feelings to
that most important of all questions in fiction: What comes next?
So, next—Carnal
Sacraments, A Historical Novel of
the Future.
CARNAL SACRAMENTS, A New Novel by
Perry Brass from Belhue Press
No
one would know his real age. Or how he felt inside. Or what he had to
do to stay the way he was.
In the last quarter of the 21st century, Jeffrey
Cooper, an Alabama-raised, executive design star living in Americanized
Germany, has made a Faustian pact with the huge global economic system
running the world. The system will keep him young and razor-sharp, as
long as he can stay on top of do his job and keep profits high. But
stress from work and the congested, hyper-competitive life around him
is killing Jeffrey. Can he keep his stress level a secret from the
system itself, his co-workers, and even his own seductive, "Daddyish"
German therapist who has told him that, when all else fails, there are
“angels” who can save him, and often we don’t know who they are?
But one will appear in Jeffrey’s life. At first, he
seems to be the Devil himself, offering every kind of excitement, even
offering Jeffrey back his own lost soul—but will this younger,
mysterious and attractive man end up killing Jeffrey, or saving him?
In Carnal
Sacraments, Perry Brass has created a parable of our time and
the future, of an emerging international business culture based on war,
and of intense sexuality as a key to religious experience and personal
salvation. Author of The Harvest,
Warlock, and Angel Lust, Perry Brass continues
his exploration of the joining of sexuality, consciousness, and
spirituality in this poignant and mature novel.
cover photo by André DeLoach,
ISBN 978-1-892149-05-3
Price: $16.95, 232 pages
Pub date: June, 2007
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