"The Chronicles of Nefaria" is short fiction, Kafkaesque in attitude, drawing on current events happening in the mid-east, metamorphosed into a surreal world that exemplifies the horror of leaders devoid of humanity. The story begins on the first day of the Sacred Season of Forgiveness and Retribution. A Patient, the Prime Minister of Nefaria, lies immobile in a hospital bed, able to hear and think but unable to see, touch or feel anything. He moves in and out of consciousness responding to voices and sounds. He's attended to by a nurse, an Elusian girl from the occupied territory that Nefaria controls. The novel covers the seven days of the sacred season. It is a fictional work based on real events and real people. Yet its purpose is to serve as a metaphor for the conditions we face in our world, a world unfortunately that has not advanced beyond ancient superstitions and medieval beliefs. Power rules and destroys both the conquered and the conqueror.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
The book presents an interesting metaphor of the Israeli - Palestinian dilemma from the perspective of a man trapped within his own body and a peoples similarly affected. While you might not agree with the perspective taken in the book, it does raise an interesting perspective on the current situation from a very personal and psychological approach. Professor Cook raises a clarion call against oppression and injustice wherever he sees it, regardless of the political consequences. I believe that this book will carry the dialogue to a new perspective on the issues for both sides in this terrible, implacable situation.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
I wish to add my voice to those praising the sensitive yet powerful new literary contribution by William Cook entitled, The Chronicles of Nefaria. He offers in this fictitious narrative an all too-familiar theme that has dominated the history of civilization for thousands of years.
Lives of national leaders are often chronicled by their legacy, be it a blight or blessing to their country in particular, or humanity in general. In Chronicles, Dr. Cook uses a literary device that offers a creatively fresh approach in addressing this question. To tell his tale, the author uses not the eyes of a critical political historian, but those of the nation's leader himself forced by a physically paralyzing illness into a state of nearly total personal isolation. With his mental capacity still intact, the leader is forced to reflect on the terrible consequences of his actions while at the helm of his country. He slowly comes to realize his own isolated and debilitated state as the metaphoric condition into which he has placed two nations - his own, dominating by barbaric force and fear, subjugating the other nation into an inhumane life of depravation and humiliation. The reader is afforded an intimate insight into this character's personally horrific journey of self reflection and discovery.
Nefaria also prompts readers into our own journeys, encouraging us to reflect on how we all build our own walls of containment and exclusion in order to psychologically distance ourselves from those unpleasant realities with which we prefer not to deal. However, as with the protagonist in this story, events come into our lives that eventually force this critical self reflection. Nafaria is such a force.
Lives of national leaders are often chronicled by their legacy, be it a blight or blessing to their country in particular, or humanity in general. In Chronicles, Dr. Cook uses a literary device that offers a creatively fresh approach in addressing this question. To tell his tale, the author uses not the eyes of a critical political historian, but those of the nation's leader himself forced by a physically paralyzing illness into a state of nearly total personal isolation. With his mental capacity still intact, the leader is forced to reflect on the terrible consequences of his actions while at the helm of his country. He slowly comes to realize his own isolated and debilitated state as the metaphoric condition into which he has placed two nations - his own, dominating by barbaric force and fear, subjugating the other nation into an inhumane life of depravation and humiliation. The reader is afforded an intimate insight into this character's personally horrific journey of self reflection and discovery.
Nefaria also prompts readers into our own journeys, encouraging us to reflect on how we all build our own walls of containment and exclusion in order to psychologically distance ourselves from those unpleasant realities with which we prefer not to deal. However, as with the protagonist in this story, events come into our lives that eventually force this critical self reflection. Nafaria is such a force.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Jack A. Cook
Review of William A. Cook's The Chronicle of Nefaria,
By Jack Cook
I serve only Chilean wine, red and white, For that brave and poetic people tried to put their war criminals in prison, unlike here in the states, where we elect or appoint them to high office.
What to do with war criminals? Absent the dead, the war criminals of my youth are still in power We learn today, 9/11/2008, of new transcripts of Kissinger's role in the Chilean coup on
9/11/1973. Cheney/Bush remain in power, not impeached by complicit Democrats, for waging preemptive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cheney, who once referred to Red Square as "Ground
Zero" goads Putin with missiles in Poland, troops in Georgia.
What to do with war criminals? Why, we celebrate them! These war profiteers are successful, and America, being the religious country it is, only worships Success. It is the American Dream, after all
If war criminals/war profiteers cannot be made accountable, then at least make literature out of them.
Create literary characters that might survive their machinations to make vigilant posterity. Dante
did it. Beckett's Pozzo and Lucky do it for all Masters and Slaves.
William A. Cook does it, too, in The Chronicles of Nefaria. The war criminal Cook allegorizes
is never in question however. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's two year long coma "gave inspiration
for the metaphoric morality tale that is Nefaria." That Sharon is our war criminal as well--enabled,
funded, policies preserved in power by us--is part of that tale.
So, make a visit to this comatose war criminal, to all appearance dead to the world, but still at times able to think and hear, as he relives his life during the Sacred Season of Forgiveness and Retribution,
cared for only by two young women from the occupied zone. Visit the hospital , surgeons, and official visitors. Visit the divided city, the occupied territory--the sixty year old war crime still ongoing.
Visit especially the mind of the war criminal as he confronts those who visit, those who care, and the demons of his own mind. It is an harrowing journey. But not totally damning, for
visitor and patient regain a measure of humanity. Then, toast the people of Chile
By Jack Cook
I serve only Chilean wine, red and white, For that brave and poetic people tried to put their war criminals in prison, unlike here in the states, where we elect or appoint them to high office.
What to do with war criminals? Absent the dead, the war criminals of my youth are still in power We learn today, 9/11/2008, of new transcripts of Kissinger's role in the Chilean coup on
9/11/1973. Cheney/Bush remain in power, not impeached by complicit Democrats, for waging preemptive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cheney, who once referred to Red Square as "Ground
Zero" goads Putin with missiles in Poland, troops in Georgia.
What to do with war criminals? Why, we celebrate them! These war profiteers are successful, and America, being the religious country it is, only worships Success. It is the American Dream, after all
If war criminals/war profiteers cannot be made accountable, then at least make literature out of them.
Create literary characters that might survive their machinations to make vigilant posterity. Dante
did it. Beckett's Pozzo and Lucky do it for all Masters and Slaves.
William A. Cook does it, too, in The Chronicles of Nefaria. The war criminal Cook allegorizes
is never in question however. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's two year long coma "gave inspiration
for the metaphoric morality tale that is Nefaria." That Sharon is our war criminal as well--enabled,
funded, policies preserved in power by us--is part of that tale.
So, make a visit to this comatose war criminal, to all appearance dead to the world, but still at times able to think and hear, as he relives his life during the Sacred Season of Forgiveness and Retribution,
cared for only by two young women from the occupied zone. Visit the hospital , surgeons, and official visitors. Visit the divided city, the occupied territory--the sixty year old war crime still ongoing.
Visit especially the mind of the war criminal as he confronts those who visit, those who care, and the demons of his own mind. It is an harrowing journey. But not totally damning, for
visitor and patient regain a measure of humanity. Then, toast the people of Chile
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
"The Chronicles of Nefaria": Read it, Ponder it, Learn from it!
Professor William A. Cook has crafted a fine allegorical tale here.
Professor Cook's sweet, bruised heroine-nurse, Humilia, and her equally damaged friend Carita are... Read more
Professor Cook's sweet, bruised heroine-nurse, Humilia, and her equally damaged friend Carita are... Read more
Published on November 17, 2008 by Robert H. Stiver
5.0 out of 5 stars
Response to "Chronicles of Nefaria"
Notes on "The Chronicles of Nefaria" by William A. Cook.
Bill Cook's richly written, powerful morality tale evokes the density of the language of Aeschylus, mixing... Read more
Bill Cook's richly written, powerful morality tale evokes the density of the language of Aeschylus, mixing... Read more
Published on October 12, 2008 by David N. Flaten
5.0 out of 5 stars
Morality tale of pain and guilt
The Chronicles of Nefaria
The Chronicles of Nefaria is a morality tale for our times that will advance the conversation, often muted, of the oppressed and those who... Read more
The Chronicles of Nefaria is a morality tale for our times that will advance the conversation, often muted, of the oppressed and those who... Read more
Published on October 2, 2008 by V. Derkarabetian
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