Review: Narcissists looking for a reflecting pool...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 23, 2011
Kindle singles are a wonderful offering that allows acquaintance with a variety of authors at a minimal investment  of money or time. Oliver Broudy's The Saint piqued my interest and I was rewarded with a short story that offered intersting and well drawn characters within a quixotic tale, that while professed to be true, seems nothing short of farce. As in you can't make this stuff up, a jaded New York journalist clerics, counsels, succors and babysits a tall, rich, fasting philanthropist who decides that auctioning Ghandi memorabilia in India would be a good way of supporting pacifist non-violence. If you don't see this train wreck coming before you upgrade to first class, you're the only reader who thinks this is a voyage of enlightenment and not a sequel to the Ugly American or a trailer for the new Three Stooges movie. Don Quixote and sidekick are off again only the Saint in this epic is a loose cannon, with more money than accumen, who survives on lemon juice and maple syrup.This diet may not produce hallucinations, but it does seem to induce extremely bad decision-making on the part of James Otis, the philanthropist, who despite plenty of advice, raises levels of ineptitude to new heights. Broudy is James' Sancho and if this story is true, there are worst fates than riding a mule. The Saint presents a tale of self indulgent good intention gone awry and readers should not be taken in by the author's introspection. There is little weightiness here...only bumbling entertainment that produces consternation versus reflection.