The Hassayampa King
$21.95 plus $3 shipping and handling. I accept cash or check only.
Email thomaspreiss@msn.com to purchase
A book review By Lauren Pickwood
Local author Thomas Preiss has released a fiction novel about a road to enlightenment. What I like about the story is that the road to enlightenment for the protagonist in the story is a road any one of us could or already have travelled upon. It’s an everyman story. I read an average of fifty books a year and I found Preiss’ tale to be a refreshing and unique presentation of style and voice, far from the beaten path of mechanized commercial story telling.
The title refers to the ten thousand year old mythic story of the Fisher King, which suggests that the deepest wounds in a person’s life can become that person’s greatest teacher; the proverbial double-edged sword which allows for more that one interpretation of events in a person’s life. It also refers to a river that flows south of Prescott Arizona, where the author spent a part of his childhood. The Hassayampa River and its tributaries Wolf Creek and Groom Creek occupy a large portion of the settings found in the story.
This story offers the Fisher King truth in a very in-depth study of the protagonist Mitchell’s life. Character development in the story is stunning, and allows for the reader to completely submerse him/herself into the lives found within, made that much easier by the detailed scenic descriptions, which will, if the reader allows, affect a transcendental experience that adds to the unfolding of Mitchell’s life. While scenic descriptions and superb dialogue pull the reader in, foreshadowing of events that occur later in Mitchell’s life add to the mystery and intrigue of the story. The book offers a stunningly romantic tale of love. The love story is contrasted by the violence and cruelty fate puts forth, compelling Mitchell to answer the question exemplified in the mythic Fisher King tale.
The book also offers much in the way of social commentary and I found many times holding my own life up to the template that is Mitchell’s life. Mitchell ultimately finds God through an intimate dialogue about good and evil. Preiss reminds the reader the importance of leadership in children’s lives and how the quality of that leadership defines good and evil as a child’s life unfolds.
The book can be purchased by email at thomaspreiss@msn.com. I accept cash or check.
