“Sometimes when I walk through the rain, I know that each drop that falls on me wasn’t meant to fall on anyone else. Other times I take an umbrella to shield myself from the randomness.” (9)

I really loved Ariel Gore’s memoir, ‘Atlas of the Human Heart.’ Her new novel, ‘The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show’ is written in a similar style.

The main character, Frankka, lost both her parents when she was four years old. Raised by her grief-stricken grandmother, Frankka accidentally discovers that when she’s hungry she can manifest stigmata, the bleeding wounds of Christ, from small scars on her palms. Initially, she uses this skill to get attention (and food) from her grandmother. As an adult, she uses her special skill as part of a religious freak show with a small troupe of travellers.

While performing in a church in a small town, the show draws the attention of a bored Los Angeles reporter. Far from being skeptical, the reporter believes that Frankka’s stigmata may be for real and she breaks the story in the L.A. Times. The subsequent publicity firestorm overwhelms Frankka and she flees the church through a secret tunnel to the house of the retired minister, and then to the mountains.

In her travels, Frankka meets Dorothy, a spiritual mentor of sorts and Frannka begins to unravel the threads of her spiritual crisis.

The novel is interspersed with stories from Frankka’s ‘book of saints’ and I found these well-places and as enjoyable as the story itself. Gore has a unique voice and I enjoyed the way she interspersed the novel with spiritual relfections. This is a quick read, but a rewarding one.