Alost-in-life tractor salesman plopped smack dab in the center of Florence. He’s the only man in a group of 18 women psychologists attending a seminar concerning the feminine aspect of the psyche. In other words, primitive man meets goddess.Samsara begins with a brief introduction by a ‘Wise Old Man’ concerning the origins of this novel’s manuscript. Then, in the first section, In the Beginning, the protagonist, Malcolm Clay, introduces the psychological and social heritage from which he is trying to escape. The next scene is Leaving the Nest. He goes from shagging parts for broken down cotton pickers and drinking twice-filtered coffee to sipping cappuccinos and eating budini di riso for breakfast in the center of Firenze. If that isn’t leaving the nest, then what is? Then come the chapters, All Fools day, Plus a Few More. In this section, Malcolm leaves the heart of Florence, and once again ventures out into unknown territory, southern France, all alone, without the help of the women psychologists to rescue him from the terror of his very own existence.After three days of growing closer to his demon, he sets off for Paris by train – where he hopes to catch a flight to Dublin and be res-cued from his ‘condition’ by a beautiful Irish lass whom he’d met five months earlier for an entire ten minutes in a coffee shop back in California. Chasing leprechauns, rainbows, and pots of gold, this adventure attempts to unify the masculine and feminine and Malcolm Clay’s dream world with his waking reality. With his third novel, SamSara, Mel Mathews certainly does prove to be a master of his trade.
Published by Fisher King Press, SamSara is available from Baker & Taylor, Ingram Books, local Florentine bookstores, and a host of on-line booksellers: www.fisherkingpress.com
