A Very Minor Prophet

Read from Thursday, February 9th to Monday, February 13th.

A Very Minor Prophet: The Gospel according to Joseph Patrick Booker, as interpreted by his faithful scribe, Barth Flynn, a novel by James Bernard Frost.  This was my February Rumpus book club pick, and I really enjoyed this unique, large book.  It is set up, first of all, like a textbook, at least in the size, and the multiple columns of text on a page.  But then it is also meant to be a Gospel at times, with the fancy font, and also a comic book/ zine, complete with illustrations.  It is a hipster book, and an ode to that lifestyle of freaks and weirdos in Portland, and also to bikes, coffee and unique donuts.

Flynn is a young, college graduate who moves to Portland right before the Iraq war.  He goes for no discernible reason, and works in a coffee shop.  He tries writing zines, but with little success.  One day, while riding his bike, he gets a flat tire outside of an old church.  The church has been converted, haphazardly, into the home of Booker, a midget.  Booker has just returned from a trip down south, where he told people, for some reason, that he was a preacher, and so when Flynn arrived, he tried out a sermon.  These parts of the novel, where Booker preaches, are illustrated, with lots of word bubbles and cutting and pasting.   The sermon is about the real message of Jesus Christ.  How it is not the current bible-thumping, war-mongering Christians that closely follow his teachings, but actually the hipsters, weirdos, and self-proclaimed atheists that would probably be friends with a modern Jesus.

Flynn is inspired, and he creates a zine based on this experience, and this instantly becomes a hit.  He hangs out with Mercyx, a bike messenger, and develops a crush on her.  Flynn and other friends go to the church the following Sunday for another sermon.  Instead of wine and crackers, they eat Voodoo donuts and premium coffee.  Together, over the next few months, the zine does well and a professional illustrator is brought in to help.  The group has adventures, especially one bike trip up a mountain, that ends in a car crash and Flynn naked in Mercyx's room.  They kiss, but go no further.

Of course, things go downhill.  Flynn and Mercyx get awkward after she reveals she is a virgin.  He decides the logical thing would be to marry her, but his proposal is rejected and she is furious.  Flynn is also muscled out of all the proceeds from the zine, and is kicked off the project by greedy professionals.  Booker is also harassed by the leader of a local biker gang.  It is also revealed that Booker is a pimp.  That is how he made money.  Finally, in a moment of weakness, Booker and Mercyx hook up, and in retaliation Flynn buys one of Booker's hookers.  Flynn and Booker's relationship is in tatters, but Booker tries desperately to make it up to him.  He issues an apology to Flynn over the airwaves of Portland.  In this last sermon, Booker also makes the point that Americans need to take responsibility and apologize to the Muslim world for the wars going on.  Flynn rejects the apology at first, and then denies knowing Booker when the FBI come looking for him.  Turns out, Booker went to Iraq, and started preaching and apologizing, before he was strung up and martyred.  In their grief, Mercyx and Flynn are reunited, and end up getting married years later.  They inherit the church, and Flynn becomes the preacher every Sunday.

I really enjoyed this clever book.  I can really get behind all the preaching and the values of the characters.  I actually just bought a bike last week, so that I could take long bike rides like in the book.  Unique and very fun.  Flynn, the narrator, is relatable, but also deeply flawed at times, as all good characters should be.  Check this one out.  Four out of five stars.