An American Pope (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781501021176)

A youthful reading of Crime and Punishment decided Paul Xylinides on his life's path inspired by something other than its allotment of grime and its Russian characters. Painfully enough, he knew he had aimed high seeking ultimately to produce a work that looked to engage readers as Dostoevsky had him and countless others. An American Pope does contain a crime and a punishment on an individual level but there the similarity to the great Russian novelist's work ends. It concerns itself more with a broader crime and more general shadow that has fallen over so many lives for centuries past and to this day; and yet, on second thought, Dostoevsky's hero did commit his murder while under the sway of a thinker (Nietzsche) whose ideas affected much of his age and, long after his death, provided inspiration for a World War. Wherever we find ourselves vast historical winds have deposited us and we remain either subject to their reach or within their unrelenting grip. The author resides in Montreal, Canada, and studied at McGill University, M.A. (English Literature). Mentor: David G. Taylor, painter, teacher, writer (DavidGeorgeTaylor.com).