Satisfy My Soul [Hardcover]

Colin Channer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2002

I have called you here to reveal to you a truth that has been calling to you for many years. . . . Since then your soul has been seeking rest.

Playwright Carey McCullough is a close guardian of his privacy, haunted by a recurring dream and a damaged past he would like to keep there. But some things he can never forget. And the more he pushes them away, the more uprooted he feels. The women he has loved, lusted after, rejected, and embraced represent a lifetime of trial and error, adventure and compromise. Then, while in Jamaica, he crosses paths with a radiant woman who attracts him like a flame.

Then he remembers. The first time Carey saw Frances, she was singing a blues song on a videotape. Of course then she was just a nameless face, a hazy image that he could never quite get out of his mind. Now she has entered his life in the flesh. But this undeniable attraction is much more than chemistry. As Carey soon discovers from a “reader” of the spirit world, he and Frances share a history that has linked their souls for more than four hundred years. Though Carey views past lives with skepticism, he cannot explain knowing the language of an ancient African people—in particular the phrase: “Mulewe anekoso kuduwe bana” (“I will search until I find you”).

Yet Frances conceals secrets of her own, with devastating consequences. And while Carey visits his best friend and fellow playwright, Kwabena Small, in South Carolina, a bond that was once thought to be unbreakable will be put to the ultimate test as startling truths at last emerge. . . .

In a stunning novel of extraordinary power that involves a mystical journey to Ghana, Colin Channer combines profound questions of faith, the aching search for home, the long reach of history, and the double-edged sword of passion to dazzling effect. Satisfy My Soul will linger in yours long after the final page is turned.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the author of the Blackboard bestseller Waiting in Vain comes this long-awaited second novel, detailing a star-crossed, obsessively erotic odyssey of self-discovery embarked on by the grandson of a Guyanese physician. The guest on a TV travel show being taped in Jamaica, Carey McCullough, a 38-year-old Cambridge-educated New York playwright, meets Frances Carey, owner of a small construction company in Kingston. He recognizes her as the singer he glimpsed on TV five years ago, on the same day he tried to commit suicide at the home of his longtime friend and mentor Kwabena, a charismatic Pentecostal academic. Frances tells McCullough that he is the reincarnation of Karamoko, a mythical hero sold into slavery 500 years ago for eloping with a girl named Feranje and Frances, of course, is the reincarnation of Feranje. McCullough phones Kwabena, who tells him he knows Frances and warns him that she will ruin his life. Overwhelmed by his sexual attraction to her, McCullough misses his plane and arrives two weeks too late to conduct an interview he had scheduled with Kwabena for the New York Times. This delivers a blow to Kwabena's struggling career and their relationship is severely damaged. As he tries to sort out his feelings for Frances, the playwright finds himself the unwitting pawn in Kwabena's deteriorating marriage. Though at times highly lyrical, this uneven, disjointed tale too often retreats into gratuitous and repetitive exposition, and is further marred by tedious erotic passages. However, by evoking a mystique similar to that of Channer's successful debut, this could be another Blackboard hit. 6-city author tour.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This latest novel by Channer, whose Waiting in Vain was a Blackboard best seller, is a tug-of-war between lust and friendship, love and faith, and ancient African religion and Christianity. New York playwright Carey is a lost soul who is nearing middle age and does not know what he believes in. Thus, he fritters away his youth and talent on a series of self-indulgent affairs and one-night stands. In Jamaica, he meets Frances, a sexually charged free spirit who believes that the two of them are reincarnations of separated African lovers, finally reunited. But Carey's obsession with Frances causes him to betray his best friend, Kwabena, with tragic and violent consequences. Channer's attempt at spiritual romance misses the mark, as one man's soul-searching journey is lost amid empty sexual fantasy. The women characters and their dialog are especially unbelievable, and the novel's ending is confusing and disappointing. For large public libraries only. Ellen Flexman, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L., IN
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: One World/Ballantine; First Edition first Printing edition (January 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345437896
• ISBN-13: 978-0345437891
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (116 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,344,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a lovely and charming book, February 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Satisfy My Soul (Hardcover)

Satisfy My Soul is a beautifully written novel, one that satisfies the soul because it is written with humor, passion, and heart. Colin Channer weaves a multi-layered story that is complex and engaging, one that does not succumb to the formulaic conventions of the romance novel. The characters are believable in their complexity. The story is given substance by the characters' quests for faith as they move between Africa and the diaspora, and between Christianity and the myths and religions that should have been theirs, but have been lost to them with the transport of their ancestors to the West.

The sensual, erotic, lyrical, and poetic elements of the narrative combine with an imaginative plot and Carey's ongoing revision of his feelings for his lover Frances to create a novel that is written like music as much as prose. And just as I would listen many times to a favorite piece of music, I have reread parts of the novel with more appreciation for the work each time.

Colin Channer's first novel, Waiting in Vain, is a book that for any writer would be a hard act to follow. But he is a preternaturally gifted writer, one who has also worked hard to perfect his craft. He has matured as a writer, and brings us a novel that is more sophisticated and beautiful than his first. His writing is always -- in the word Carey Francis uses to describe his lover Frances Carey -- lovely.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you know your history, then you know your destiny., March 3, 2002

By 

marla moore (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Satisfy My Soul (Hardcover)

I have a battered copy of Colin Channer's,"Waiting In Vain" that I keep on my nightstand. When I travel, it travels with me. I read it several times a year to remain inspired. If you've read "Waiting", then you already know that it is a fatally sexy love story, but it is also a scattering of breadcrumbs that leads us gently and sometimes brutally towards a healing discourse between men and women of the Diaspora. I know a whole slew of women who go to sleep praying that Channer's hero; Adrian 'Fire' Heath will materialize on their doorsteps in the morning.

Colin Channer is a griot like none other. Now, with the advent of "Satisfy My Soul", I'm inclined to believe that he's a shaman who invades the bodies of regular folks, extracts the mystical lyricism from our ordinary lives and then daringly places the formulas for our survival into the hands of the general population.

As an American, baptized in Judeo-Christian doctrine, if a while driving my car an eighteen wheeler swerved into my line I would definitely cry out 'Jesus Lord Have Mercy!' But should I be censored if I am one of those who asks my ancestors to carry my prayers to the feet of God or acknowledges Shango,Osun, Erzulie or Baron Samdi? Should I be fearful of ancestral altars, affirmations incense fetishes or candles? How have I managed to survive when the religion and other cultural aspects of my ancestors are regarded in a suspicuous light? And how important is it anyway? This is the crux of "Satisfy My Soul." When the rubber meets the road what spirits do you call on? The answer to this question straddles social, moral, psychological frontiers, but only scant few like Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston and the sweet, delicious and sometimes wicked Channer can raise the stakes by throwing romance into the pot.

Africa is embodied as the soul of a reckless, beautiful untamed woman, Frances. Carey, A Judeo-Christian oriented Rastafarian, is her passionate, yet confused suitor. They were lovers in an ancient African existence and they have a chance to get it right in this life. Though I will never understand Africa as those born there, I accept and seek Africa because quite honestly I am homesick on some levels and I am not alone. The stakes are so high in this novel, because as you realize the things in your history that you can not accept, you must come to realize that failure to accept the past is a barrier that impedes self-love and all of the other kinds of love...spiritual, paternal, fraternal, maternal, and romantic.

At the end of this book, I cried for Frances and Carey.
Tears for what they could be to each other and what history will not let them be. These star-crossed lovers inhabit the small needing space required for yin and yang can slip themselves around each other. They have supernatural sexual encounters that transcend traditional gender roles, seeking penetration of the very soul. If you're familiar with Channer's work, then you already know that he dances on a supremely erotic line. The power of his literary voice is in its beauty and utter fearlessness. The romantic element in "Satisfy My Soul" is as much a healing balm for the reader as for the characters. Colin Channer takes you "there" this time. With the creation of Fire and Sylvia in "Waiting In Vain," he showed us how to get it right. In this novel, he shows us why it is so hard to accomplish that feat.

My overwhelming thought upon finishing, "Satisfy", it is get it right, right now, in this life. To quote Bob Marley, as Colin Channer is wont to do, " If you know your history, then you know your destiny..."

Congrats Colin Channer, this brave book is so necessary.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Satisfaction for your Soul, April 24, 2002

By 

busylady (Riverdale, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Satisfy My Soul (Hardcover)

I've had this book for over 2 month. I've been saving it. After reading Waiting in Vain I knew what to expect from this author and he has surpassed my rather lofty expectations. Satisfy My Soul is a novel that will haunt you. It is a canvas of exotic locations and erotic interplay. It is a brilliant, eloquent book of contradictions, at times wickedly naughty then moments later warm and alluring. It characters are hopelessly flawed and later just examples of the human condition. It's mystical and worldly and then spiritual and pious.

This is all reflected in the characters Colin has created. No one can capture in written word the subtle emotional changes in human thought and behavior quite like Mr. Channer. Frances is a walking contradiction; she is a whore yet totally faithful to her man. Carey is intrigued by her a little put-off by her propensity toward bedding many men, but he finds a "dirty girl" a bit of a challenge can't pass up an opportunity to clean up after other men. Carey is a very flawed individual but spends an enormous amount of time intellectualizing and reveling in the flaws of others. Yet he does very little work on his own psyche. It is true brilliance that Colin can sell us these characters, make us care deeply, how dare we judge, are we really that different?

Colin's command of language is astounding. He uses some of the literary techniques used in poetry such as repetition and free form. In one of my favorite sections of the books Carey is on his way to France's home and he is talking to her on his phone and he says he can't remember "the order of the conversation or who said what" and then Colin lists about 30 lines of the most erotic, intriguing conversation in no particular order or structure, Amazing! I just sat there looking at it..........

Remember when Julia Roberts said she didn't want to live in a world where she had an Oscar and Denzel Washington didn't. I don't want to live in a world where Colin Channer does not make the bestsellers list.