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David Beasley
Author
That Other God

Adult; General Fiction (including literary and historical); (Market)

In Vienna, Austria, after WW II, an American poet and mystic sets out with single minded determination to unite the peoples of the earth through meditation, telepathy, and the collective subconscious to bring them to the knowledge of the one true God of humanity. He finds unlikely help from an English artist, a Turkish dervish and an Austrian bureaucrat. For a time, the mystic and his friends succeed, and the world knows peace and spiritual joy until the failings of human nature undo the promise. As the story unfolds, the reader is challenged to question what lies at the core of the spiritual degeneration of our time. "This is a compelling book, a cry for peace at a time of widespread anarchy and unfettered violence...really interesting and exciting." .. Brantford Expositor. "The gripping style, detailed observation, poetic images. This book must be read!"--Peter Rankin, N.Y.C.; "Saving values lie deep within the human spirit which can lead to the salvation of the world."--Human Quest.
Reviews
Brantford Expositor, Brantford, ON

That Other God 

SIMCOE AUTHOR TURNS OUT COMPELLING BOOK

Reviewed by Marcus van Steen, the Brantford Expositor

This is a compelling book, a cry for peace at a time of widespread anarchy and unfettered violence. The author, David Beasley, was born in Hamilton. After graduating from McMaster University he traveled widely in Europe, and spent two years teaching in Vienna, where this novel is set. The first character we meet is Abel Kingston, an English artist who is forced to teach English because he cannot sell his modernist paintings. The main character appears when Abel gives a young man shelter from the rain and finds that his name is Cain Brooks. Cain immediately refers to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel pointing out that Cain killed Abel. He proceeded to tell the story to a perplexed Abel, "Abel was the shepherd," he said, "and Cain was the tiller of the soil. When Cain brought the fruit of the field as an offering to the altar of God, he was dismayed that Abel had won God's special favor by laying the body of a slain lamb on the altar. Cain found it strange that God should prefer a slaughtered innocent body to the natural fruits of the land."

Holy Spirit

He went on to explain that he realized that this God was not the Holy Spirit he communicated with in the fields. "I do believe," he added, "that it is to save humanity from this blind worship of a false God that providence has brought us together. It is up to Cain and Abel to remold the world." This is the point where the story becomes really interesting and exciting. Cain gathers a handful of converts who accept his message and believe that if enough people embraced the great truth that God reveals himself in man's humanity, the world would be a gentler and happier place. Cain even recruits some Christian ministers who are won over by his argument that the organized churches through the centuries urged people to become saints and the more saintly they are the less human they become and the less tolerant and understanding. That, says Cain, is because they are serving a false god - "That Other God" of the title. Of course there is a great deal of other activity among the growing number of people who get involved with Cain and Abel. Cain gets married and his bride is underway to becoming a mother by the time the story ends. Abel becomes a popular preacher for the new Humanist Movement. He is also keen to marry, but his prospective bride feels she cannot leave her aged mother. But in the end it is Cain's vision of a peaceful and perfect world that is the dominant theme. At the end, there is the solace that another attempt next year might succeed. This is David Beasley's most important book since 1977 when his biography of Canada's first novelist, John Richardson, appeared under the title "The Canadian Don Quixote."

Retired

After his sojourn in Europe, Beasley served for some 30 years as research librarian for the New York Public Research Libraries. Now retired, he and his wife have returned to Canada and taken up residence in Simcoe. He says they both like it here and he hopes to have enough time to edit and publish a number of manuscripts he wants to work on

Marcus van Steen, the Brantford Expositor

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