Pope Dun the Incredible: A Satirical Novel

by Paul Enns Wiebe

Overview

Pope Dun the Incredible revives the recipe for the picaresque novel. Take a charming rogue of low estate; flavor with a menagerie of bizarre companions; put this comic hero in a dozen absurd situations; establish him as pope. Then serve as an outsize farce that makes the scandals of priests and their fondness for altar boys, to say nothing of cardinals and their fondness for confidentiality, look like copy for a slow-news day.

This novel flays just about everything in the contemporary world that begs to be flayed - politics, the media, and of course religion. The comic hero is a mix of Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff and an ultra porn king. Benny Good's misadventures lead him from a humble origin as an Amish foundling through stints as a novice evangelist, overland trucker, and radio talk show host, then achieving the office that includes the perk of being addressed as Most Holy Father. Beyond that, who knows?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781952006043
Publisher:	Paul Wiebe
Publication date:	03/13/2020
Pages:	306
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.99(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Paul Enns Wiebe grew up in the Idaho outback. Early on he found that the life of irrigating spuds, driving trucks, repairing fences, digging ditches, chasing mad steers across the open range, and castrating the occasional boar was not to his liking.

This discovery led him to the halls of higher education. Bethel College (Kansas) granted him a BA.; the University of Chicago eventually sent him away to Wichita State University, then presented him with a PhD. At Wichita State he taught religion and literature and performed the tasks of his chosen profession-translating and writing books on the theory of religion, composing footnotes for journal articles, and arriving late at the meetings of those committees he could recall having been assigned to.

But his mastery of the academic proprieties was never more than tenuous. Thus it came as no surprise to his colleagues and students when he resigned his tenured position and, in an attempt to recapture a vanishing sanity, took to writing comic novels.

Wiebe now lives in Colorado with his wife, Elly.

Editorial Reviews

These reviews refer to an earlier version of this book, Benedict XVI, which appeared before Cardinal Ratzinger chose that papal name.

As a novelist, Wiebe does not specialize in diplomacy … ahead of its time … naughty fun in parts, with an arch, slapstick humor that grows on you.” – Carlin Romano, finalist for 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism; in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

An outrageously comic novel that should strike home to those to whom religion really matters … Full-throttle, nonstop, gut-bustinglyfunny. – the late Edwin Gleaves, former Tennessee State Librarian.

Brilliant. Funny. Irresistible. – the late Jack Cady, author of The Off Season and winner of the Atlantic Monthly First Award, World Fantasy Award, Nebula Award, and the Iowa Prize for Short Fiction.

From the Publisher