Jack Schauer’s Second Novel, The Trials of Sisyphus, Published by Outskirts Press
Fargo, ND, March 11, 2010 --(PR.com)-- In The Trials of Sisyphus, published by Outskirts Press, author Jack Schauer offers two harmonic works of fictional self-examination, Confessions of a Narcissist and Face the Tiger, as a means of defining modern man. Each “memoir” plays off against the other as a jailed ex-Governor and a Viet Nam veteran each probe their own guilt and innocence as well as their own laying of illusions across the reality of their lives.
In the first of these two thematically parallel tales, Mark Nelson, former Governor of North Dakota, finds himself in prison, having been convicted of money laundering and fraud. Shocked by his fate and still tending to blame others for part of what went wrong in his life, he becomes obsessed with the idea of his innocence and the role the Roman Catholic Church has had in his life.
He ends up worrying himself into a mental breakdown with his intense, guilt driven introversion, but ultimately he comes to a reconciliation of his guilt through a kind of spiritual enlightenment that he is able to achieve through his study of the philosophy of Zen Buddhism.
The Vietnam veteran in Face the Tiger is also faced with overwhelming feelings of guilt and is on a similarly introspective journey to try to rid himself of that enormous burden. However, unlike the ex-North Dakota governor, this veteran finds himself truly crossing the line between reality and illusion as he becomes increasingly haunted by the recurring vision of the face of a tiger.
While the ex-governor is able, even after a mental breakdown, to forge some kind of redemption for himself and free himself from the coils of his guilt, the protagonist of Face the Tiger is offered no such spiritual salvation. He has become so obsessed with his sense of guilt and so unable to think clearly about making the personal changes that he has convinced himself are necessary to move him past this guilt, that he is entirely blinded to the fact that he has, in reality, already died.
This second, more allegorical memoir offers a philosophical counterpoint to Confessions of a Narcissist and allows the author to examine the disparities between secular humanism and religion, reality and illusion, and man’s primordial guilt and innocence as they manifest themselves in the touchingly real life and death of these two men and their two stories in The Trials of Sisyphus.
ISBN: 978-1-4327-3478-7 Format: 6.14 x 9.21 paperback SRP: $14.95
6.14 x 9.21 casebound $30.95
Genre: Fiction/General
About the author:
Jack Schauer graduated from Jamestown College, Jamestown, North Dakota in December, 1980. He holds two Masters Degrees: one in Liberal Arts and one in Non-profit Management. In addition to philosophy, history, politics, and issues of social welfare, his interests focus on various levels of spiritual development as they relate to the crisis of modern man in a world gone crazy.
For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/Sisyphus.
About Outskirts Press, Inc,: Outskirts Press, Inc. offers full-service, custom self-publishing and book marketing services for authors seeking a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books worldwide while retaining all their rights and full creative control. Available for authors globally at www.outskirtspress.com and located on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, Outskirts Press represents the future of book publishing, today.
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Outskirts Press, Inc., 10940 S. Parker Rd. - 515, Parker, Colorado 80134
http://outskirtspress.com 1-888-OP-BOOKS
In the first of these two thematically parallel tales, Mark Nelson, former Governor of North Dakota, finds himself in prison, having been convicted of money laundering and fraud. Shocked by his fate and still tending to blame others for part of what went wrong in his life, he becomes obsessed with the idea of his innocence and the role the Roman Catholic Church has had in his life.
He ends up worrying himself into a mental breakdown with his intense, guilt driven introversion, but ultimately he comes to a reconciliation of his guilt through a kind of spiritual enlightenment that he is able to achieve through his study of the philosophy of Zen Buddhism.
The Vietnam veteran in Face the Tiger is also faced with overwhelming feelings of guilt and is on a similarly introspective journey to try to rid himself of that enormous burden. However, unlike the ex-North Dakota governor, this veteran finds himself truly crossing the line between reality and illusion as he becomes increasingly haunted by the recurring vision of the face of a tiger.
While the ex-governor is able, even after a mental breakdown, to forge some kind of redemption for himself and free himself from the coils of his guilt, the protagonist of Face the Tiger is offered no such spiritual salvation. He has become so obsessed with his sense of guilt and so unable to think clearly about making the personal changes that he has convinced himself are necessary to move him past this guilt, that he is entirely blinded to the fact that he has, in reality, already died.
This second, more allegorical memoir offers a philosophical counterpoint to Confessions of a Narcissist and allows the author to examine the disparities between secular humanism and religion, reality and illusion, and man’s primordial guilt and innocence as they manifest themselves in the touchingly real life and death of these two men and their two stories in The Trials of Sisyphus.
ISBN: 978-1-4327-3478-7 Format: 6.14 x 9.21 paperback SRP: $14.95
6.14 x 9.21 casebound $30.95
Genre: Fiction/General
About the author:
Jack Schauer graduated from Jamestown College, Jamestown, North Dakota in December, 1980. He holds two Masters Degrees: one in Liberal Arts and one in Non-profit Management. In addition to philosophy, history, politics, and issues of social welfare, his interests focus on various levels of spiritual development as they relate to the crisis of modern man in a world gone crazy.
For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/Sisyphus.
About Outskirts Press, Inc,: Outskirts Press, Inc. offers full-service, custom self-publishing and book marketing services for authors seeking a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books worldwide while retaining all their rights and full creative control. Available for authors globally at www.outskirtspress.com and located on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, Outskirts Press represents the future of book publishing, today.
###
Outskirts Press, Inc., 10940 S. Parker Rd. - 515, Parker, Colorado 80134
http://outskirtspress.com 1-888-OP-BOOKS
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Outskirts Press
Kelly Schuknecht
888.672.6657
www.outskirtspress.com
Kelly Schuknecht
888.672.6657
www.outskirtspress.com
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