Broken Frontier

Rich Johnston puts out his "true story" of the patron saint of air travelers, aviators, and bad students. Does the book fly like its main character?

The Flying Friar is a true story, one of Joseph Desa (also known as Joseph of Copertino), who spent his youth trying to become a friar and then spent his days as a friar levitating in joy. This interpretation portrays Joseph as a misunderstood child, one who was able to look deep into things, almost to the atomic level. Joseph is always "going stupid" while he does his deep gazing, causing a lot of trouble that has to be cleaned up by his friend Lux Luther and his father. Mr. Luther, a noted atheist and man of science, is always paying for Joseph’s mistakes and eventually even pays for him to become a monk. But as always has been his case, Joseph can’t make it work out right.

Rich Johnston has been hyping this as a "true story" and (through a search in answers.com) he’s mostly telling the truth. In fact, if he only retold the story of Joseph of Copertino, this would be a very interesting story. Instead, Johnston has decided to add in a subplot, that pertaining to the befriending of Joseph by the Luthers. Instead of using this to flesh out the character of Joseph, it only holds back his characterization, simplifying it so much that the character can’t develop properly. He forces conflicts and unnecessary resolutions and never once gives his readers a consistent vision of his characters. And it hurts the story and the characters as Johnston ends up devoting too much time and attention to unnecessary items. Similarly, his "going stupid" subplot would have worked if he just tied it into the flying portion. As it is, it’s an explanation for something that is never brought up. This isn’t to say that Johnston falls completely flat. His story structure starts off good, and his pacing is spot on throughout. You just end up wishing he spent more time on fewer scenes and worked through his conflicts better.

One thing that made the subplot issues easier to deal with was the artwork of Thomas Nachlik. Nachlik, working in only black and white, shows off like a tremendous cartoonist. His inking is inspired and starts to remind of the work of Mike Oeming. The character and setting designs are all iconic enough to easily recognize and contain enough detail and styling to be enjoyed. Even more impressive is how he keeps the story moving along at a swift pace, and aside from one instance in the end, every scene is clear and understandable.

If you’re at all curious about Joseph of Copertino and don’t feel like looking him up anywhere, you can probably learn a little of his life here. But to be honest, the answers.com page was a better read.