Paul Enns Wiebe
Komos Books
  • Home
  • Novels
  • Biography
  • Reviews
  • Contact
  • Blog

About Pope Dun the Incredible

5/6/2020

1 Comment

 
The first version of this novel was called Benedict XVI. I first published it in 2000, five years before Cardinal Ratzinger chose that papal name. Soon after the Vatican signaled the election of a new pope by sending white smoke through a tiny chimney atop the roof of the Sistine Chapel, I got a phone call from my daughter Char with the news that the good cardinal and had adopted the name of my indelicate novel.
 
I’ve never attached a metaphysical meaning to this coincidence. Nor to the twin facts (1) that a Google search of “Benedict XVI” that morning showed my novel as among the very top entries, with thousands of hits, and (2) that the next day the same search yielded nothing. As far as I searched, there was Nada. All I can conclude is that someone, or some entity, didn’t want my book to share, even partially and tangentially, the spotlight with Cardinal Ratzinger and the Vatican and the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Even after the L. A. Times had a brief piece on the concurrence of my novel and the new pope, my life returned to its humdrum pace.
 
Recently I’ve repurposed the novel, giving it a new title and making a few cosmetic changes. It's now Pope Dun the Incredible. It’s still about a Benny Good, an Amish foundling who, with the help of an agent with her eyes on the Vatican’s holdings, achieves the papacy. It’s still about a con man of Falstaffian proportions and principles, a portly, uncouth talk show host who insists on being called "Most Holy Father."
 
The late Jack Cady called the original novel “brilliant, funny, and irresistible.” A former Tennessee State Librarian called it “An outrageously comic novel. Full-throttle, non-stop, gut-bustingly funny.” I call it one of my favorite satires.
 
A book for general readers—but only if they hold nothing sacred.
1 Comment
Mya link
10/2/2021 09:38:03 am

Thank you for sharing thiis

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Paul Enns Wiebe perpetually asks himself, "What do I want to write when I grow up?"

    Archives

    March 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed