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Book Review
THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT BEING ‘PC’
‘The
Tranquil Ark’ by Stewart Vassie
Stewart Vassie is unashamedly ‘middle-class, middle-aged’
and much marginalized in a world awash with political correctness which
threatens to swamp simple individuality.
From
this vantage point he warms to his theme, explored within the parochial
confines of St. Margaret’s Comity – a ‘Tranquil Ark’
of sheltered dwellings near Salisbury which create a ‘closed and
comfortable’ stage upon which events unfold.
Life
within The Comity is presented as a microcosm of middle English sentiment
and tradition, founded strongly in parish life where the Church and
its acceptance of ordinary folk - flawed as they may be – still
has value and still has a voice.
The
protagonists in the Tranquil Ark, are the unusually and aptly named
Mr Richard Puritan, newly appointed and impossibly PC Administrator
of the Comity and his one-time lover/accomplice Ms Felicity Eristic
who is motivated for the most part by selfish commercial interests.
Mr
Vassie treads non too gingerly around those favourite poaching grounds
of the Politically Correct, homosexuality and racism, with his candid,
matter-of-fact account of the comings and goings-on within the Comity.
Through
several agents of good reason, events around and within the ‘Tranquil
Ark’ progress inexorably against those who ‘have not got
the perspective necessary to treat people, as the Church tries to teach,
as flawed creatures, imperfect examples of a perfect plan.’
Through
unpretentious narrative and an amusing sense of self-involvement,
Mr Vassie strikes empathetic chords in the hearts of readers who (if
they were honest) would admit to being a little weary of the presumptions
of the PC life, and who recognize that they too, are ‘flawed creatures’
– and therefore even more deserving of their individuality.
Ends
280
Words
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