Th.d J. Xavier Lachance

Sa'adam in Gomorrah Th.d J. Xavier Lachance

Whatwas the sin of Gomorrah . . . about which even the Bible is close-mouthed? In a patriarchal society, would not womenhaving the upper hand, the 'whip hand,' be considered worse than theabominations of Sodom? Thisis the story of a white woman in the dark heart of Africa,a woman abandoned to savagery for the sake of political expediency . . . toappease a post-colonial world, where white flesh is only so much meat. Chastity Benz is that woman, an author ofromance novels, who finds the fabric of her Western reality shredded in thechaos of revolution. Stripped of familyand publicly declared dead, Chastity is redefined in the too-real world of menwho brutally enslave her, body and soul, making her the plaything of theheir-apparent to an African fiefdom. Thusis Sa'Adam of the Tazshwho, recognizing that she is wracked by various kinds and shades of guilt(manifested as winged demons, who inhabit her alcoholic haze of repression andsuppression), forces her to descend into a psychological hell of self-discoveryto emerge finally, if not as herself, as the woman she might have been. Throughout, she is either victim orvictimizer . . . sometimes masochist in love, other times sadist in depravity. At all times, she is the daughter of formerwhite colonialists, destined to bear the brunt of atrocities once visited onthe African populace the price she pays, in Gomorrah fashion, for the "sinsof the father. "Each of the hundred sequential scenes isexpressly written as a stand-alone short story, complete with a surprising orpoignant climax. Read it and weep . . . forthe person you might have been.