Orphaned at age four and raised by her black-clad, rosary-mumbling, preoccupied grandmother, Frankka discovered the ability to perform the stigmata as a way to attract her grandmother's attention. Now twenty-eight, Frankka's still using this extraordinary talent, crisscrossing the country with "The Death and Resurrection Show," a Catholic-themed traveling freak show and cast of misfits who have quickly become her new family. But when a reporter from the Los Angeles Times shows up to review the show, Frankka finds herself on the front page of the newspaper -- the unwitting center of a religious debate. Now unsure of who she is and where she belongs, Frankka disappears in search of herself and a place to call home.
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From Publishers Weekly
The traditions of Catholicism and the sideshow come together in this earnest but fresh journey through the travails of a performing stigmatic. As an orphaned child raised by her devout Catholic but inattentive grandmother, Frances Catherine (Frankka) discovered she could make her palms bleed spontaneously when she grew hungry. When her musician friend Tony learns of her skill, they hit the road as a performance troupe, and soon form the titular show along with a collection of misfits and mystics: the levitating drag queen Madre Pia, the diva acrobat Magdalena, the fortuneteller Lupe, the bearded lady Paula and the gentle Italian fire-eater Barbaro. When the L.A. Times breaks the story of Frankka's strange skill, the troupe is mobbed by fanatical crowds, and Frankka, feeling betrayed, flees to the mountains of California, where she meets a Catholic spiritual mentor, Dorothy. Punctuating the narrative with stories of the saints, Gore (Atlas of the Human Heart, a memoir) depicts Frankka's religious reawakening with both irreverence and respect for tradition and faith. Predictably, Frankka's spiritual journey leads her to reconfront her troupe family, and the show goes on, with love, drama and reconciliation in its wake.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Gore's debut centers around Frankka, a 28-year-old woman who is able to bleed at will from stigmata-like scars on her palms. Orphaned at age four, Frankka first discovered her gift as a child when she prayed for a way to restore her grandmother's failing faith. Frankka now uses her gift in "The Death and Resurrection" show, a small traveling troupe that tours the U.S. performing in various cities, big and small. Frankka is hardly the only oddball in the group--there's a bearded lady and a man who can breathe fire, among the performers--but it is her gift that draws the attention of a Los Angeles Times reporter who writes a piece on Frankka's gift and exposes her to the ire of religious fanatics. Thinking someone in her group has betrayed her, Frankka flees to the woods of California, looking for both an escape from the attention and an answer to her spiritual crisis. Piercing and insightful, Gore's first novel limns one woman's complicated relationship with her religion and her personal faith. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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More About the Author
Born on the Monterey Peninsula and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ariel Gore spent the years she was supposed to be in high school as an international bag lady traveling through Asia and Europe. She returned to California at age 19, baby in tow.
Following her misspent youth, she graduated from Mills College and earned a master's degree in journalism from U.C. Berkeley.
In 1993, she founded of Hip Mama, an award-winning parenting zine covering the culture and politics of motherhood. Widely credited with launching maternal feminism, the New Yorker said, "It's the quality of the writing that sets Hip Mama apart."
Ariel's pregnancy and parenting books, The Hip Mama Survival Guide (Hyperion, 1998), The Mother Trip (Seal Press, 2000), and Whatever, Mom (Seal Press, 2004), have been called "delightful" (Glamour), "Terrific and important" (San Francisco Chronicle), and "revolutionary" (The Seattle Times).
Her lyrical teenage memoir, Atlas of the Human Heart (Seal Press, 2003), was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. The Utne Reader says: "Ariel Gore's transformation from globetrotting teenager to the hippest of mamas reads like a movie script about a Gen-X slacker following her bliss to unlikely success."
Her novel, The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show (HarperOne, 2006), was featured on MTV and was a BookSense pick praised by the Los Angeles Times as "Beguiling" and highly recommended by Library Journal as "a savvy rebuke of religious bigotry and a fun, fast, memorable read."
Her guide to writing and the creative life, How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead (Three Rivers, 2007) was praised by Booklist as "The snappiest, most useful books a writer for hire is likely to read."
She was named one of "20 Under 30" influential women by Working Woman Magazine and called "conservative Americva's worst nightmare" by San Jose Mercury News. She debated Newt Gingrich on MTV and is a sought-after expert on creativity and women's issues interviewed on NPR and Life & Style as well as CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and MTV news.
Ariel's essays, articles, and short stories have appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and periodicals including the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, Salon, Parenting, and Utne, as well as in anthologies including Wild Child (Seal Press, 1999), the American Book Award-winning Mothers Who Think (Washington Square Press, 2000), Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation (Seal Press, 2001), Because I Said So (HarperCollins, 2005), Lost On Purpose (Seal press, 2005), and Portland Noir (Akashic Books, 2009).
Her latest book, Bluebird: Women and the New Psychology of Happiness, is forthcoming from Farrar Straus Giroux. She lives in Portland Oregon with her partner Maria and her son Maximilian.
Ariel Gore is The Indiana Jones of literature.
--Chuckpalahniuk.net
Following her misspent youth, she graduated from Mills College and earned a master's degree in journalism from U.C. Berkeley.
In 1993, she founded of Hip Mama, an award-winning parenting zine covering the culture and politics of motherhood. Widely credited with launching maternal feminism, the New Yorker said, "It's the quality of the writing that sets Hip Mama apart."
Ariel's pregnancy and parenting books, The Hip Mama Survival Guide (Hyperion, 1998), The Mother Trip (Seal Press, 2000), and Whatever, Mom (Seal Press, 2004), have been called "delightful" (Glamour), "Terrific and important" (San Francisco Chronicle), and "revolutionary" (The Seattle Times).
Her lyrical teenage memoir, Atlas of the Human Heart (Seal Press, 2003), was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. The Utne Reader says: "Ariel Gore's transformation from globetrotting teenager to the hippest of mamas reads like a movie script about a Gen-X slacker following her bliss to unlikely success."
Her novel, The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show (HarperOne, 2006), was featured on MTV and was a BookSense pick praised by the Los Angeles Times as "Beguiling" and highly recommended by Library Journal as "a savvy rebuke of religious bigotry and a fun, fast, memorable read."
Her guide to writing and the creative life, How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead (Three Rivers, 2007) was praised by Booklist as "The snappiest, most useful books a writer for hire is likely to read."
She was named one of "20 Under 30" influential women by Working Woman Magazine and called "conservative Americva's worst nightmare" by San Jose Mercury News. She debated Newt Gingrich on MTV and is a sought-after expert on creativity and women's issues interviewed on NPR and Life & Style as well as CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and MTV news.
Ariel's essays, articles, and short stories have appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and periodicals including the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, Salon, Parenting, and Utne, as well as in anthologies including Wild Child (Seal Press, 1999), the American Book Award-winning Mothers Who Think (Washington Square Press, 2000), Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation (Seal Press, 2001), Because I Said So (HarperCollins, 2005), Lost On Purpose (Seal press, 2005), and Portland Noir (Akashic Books, 2009).
Her latest book, Bluebird: Women and the New Psychology of Happiness, is forthcoming from Farrar Straus Giroux. She lives in Portland Oregon with her partner Maria and her son Maximilian.
Ariel Gore is The Indiana Jones of literature.
--Chuckpalahniuk.net
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful surprise from an author with great promise,
By
This review is from: The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show: A Novel (Plus) (Paperback)
After reading her memoir, "Atlas of the Human Heart," I decided why not try her first novel.Her storyline is unique, a traveling religious, spiritual side show, with her protagonist the stigmata star. Interspersed are sketches of the protagonist's favorite Christian Saints, whose lives and writings influence the life of story's main character. This author is a fresh, new voice in the literary world, and I believe she will go far. Although this novel is just 219 pages, it seems just the write length. All loose ends are tied neatly together, and the ending is touching.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Satire,
By
This review is from: The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show: A Novel (Plus) (Paperback)
This novel by Ariel Gore is an interesting satire of Catholic religion and of American society. The author is able to sprinkle metaphors, religious or otherwise, with the greatest of ease. She writes with clarity, even when she changes tenses, which is appropriate for how the narrative flows. As another reviewer noted, she might go far; she is indeed a fresh voice in the genre of American literature. Although the novel is short, it is philisophical and insightful without being pompous. I look forward to new work by her in the future. One drawback, however, is her characterization. Frankly, the only interesting character, in my opinion, is the protagonist, who is the only character that has a purpose in life. Maybe the other characters haven't yet seen the light, and that is the point. Perhaps this is also because of the novel's length, but maybe it's because the other characters have little to recommend themselves besides acting like the vagabond malcontents that they are.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Embrace the mystery!",
This review is from: The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show: A Novel (Plus) (Paperback)
Take a rollicking roadtrip with a troupe of religious misfits, spinning along the fine line between insanity and saint-ity. A captivating story spiced with renegade-Catholic wisdom for living your own mythology.
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