Page 52 July 2015 BOOK CLUB By Amanda Goossen Religion, politics, personal opinions… Forgiveness 4 You brings up all the things you’re supposed to avoid at a dinner party. And then some! The world evolves, times change and my latest pick for the Arcadia News Book Club asks: How do religious institutions compete with an ever-changing world? Gabriel McKenna is an ex-Catholic priest keeping busy by working in a bookstore. But the problem is, people keep talking to him. Not just talking to him, but confiding in him. It’s his gift, he says. But is he actually forfeiting his own life for the sake of everyone around him? When a woman stumbles into the bookstore one rainy afternoon, revealing her innermost secrets and pain, just as so many before her have done, McKenna’s future suddenly sits in the hands of a woman, thankful for his help, but dead set on using his passion. Madeline Murray, this high powered advertising executive, comes up with a plan to create a business offering absolution to anyone willing to pay a monetary price, using McKenna’s gift of communication and his background in Catholicism. Ethically, however, she and McKenna must determine what is right and how far they’re willing to take something that begins to seem very wrong. Author Ann Bauer uses modern day concepts of commercialism, instant gratification and advertising and combines it with religious beliefs and conflict to create one of the most imaginative, ingenious novels I’ve read in quite some time. Bauer’s plot and characters develop in a natural, satisfying way. No matter what your beliefs, this novel with make you think. The Arcadia News Book Club will meet at the Saguaro Library at 6:30 p.m. on July 30. Enjoy an evening of lively conversation and great friends. Author Ann Bauer will spend 30 minutes chatting with our group via Skype. Email Amanda@arcadianews.com for more information or to RSVP for the event. We recently had a chance to ask Ann Bauer a few questions about her novel. Find her answers below. AN : Forgiveness 4 You brings together two topics, which are not often connected: religion and instant gratification. What inspired a novel that brings these worlds together? AB: I believe that digital media is changing how we live at a very fundamental level. My children don’t listen to voice mail, for instance. If it’s not in a text, they won’t get the information. (To be completely honest, I’ve quit listening to voice mail, too.) I’m perplexed when I can’t get directions or hours for a business online. And yet, the more data-rich, fast-moving and modern things get, the more I – and I think others, too – have a yearning for the bigger, more spiritual life. That’s where it started. I loved the idea of Father Gabe bringing absolution into an urban, app-driven world. But also, I wanted to provide a service for people, like me, who grew up without a religion or clergy to turn to. There’s a section in the book where Gabe talks about a family that adheres to a “recycling and Whole Foods” kind of spirituality – and it’s fine for them until their beloved daughter dies and they need a church. I think that’s the plight of a lot of my generation (Generation X). We were raised by ambitious, somewhat oblivious parents who didn’t think it was important to pass on religion and so now we’re this mass of middle-aged people, wandering the world looking for something to believe in. But because we’ve grown up in the first computer age, we also want it fast. AN: What type of research was needed regarding the Catholic Church? Did you have to interview priests, parishioners, etc.? AB: I happen to know two priests who are very important to me. One is a man who left the church in the early 2000s because he was a gay man and he objected to the way the Catholic Church was answering the gay question. He was gone for five years, working as a bookstore clerk (much like my Father Gabe). Eventually, he went back to the Church, partly because he felt the diocese was softening its stance on gay parishioners, but also because, he said, he was a priest at heart. The other was a student of mine, at Brown University in 2003. He was a brilliant kid back then: 19 years old and one of the best writers I’d met. He was struggling with his faith because he’d grown up Catholic, but he, too, opposed the Church’s philosophies on homosexuality, birth control, etc. He ended up going on to Yale Divinity and becoming an Episcopal priest. Today, he’s 31, a brilliant speaker who gives wonderful sermons. I attended his ordination and that was very meaningful to me. I think both of these men informed my novel and the character of Gabe. I did research as well, but it was mostly situational. Someone would come to Gabe to confess in the book. I’d write their story, their “sin,” but then I’d need a way to answer it. So I would go online and read scripture or Catholic doctrine on the topic. Then I’d take what I’d learned and I’d process it through Gabe’s particular lens and way of looking at the world. It was a multi-step process. AN: With Pope Francis becoming Pope and certain longtime beliefs being challenged by this head of the church, did you have to change anything in the book as you were writing? AB : Yes, but the things I needed to change were so small, I can’t remember what they were. I began writing this book just as Pope Francis was elected. And I loved him from the beginning, so it wasn’t hard for me to imagine that a fallen priest might look at this man and feel some spark of hope… My worry was that something would happen in the lag time between my finishing the book and publishing it (about nine months). If Pope Francis had changed his approach, had some sort of scandal or – God forbid – died, that would have dramatically altered the way people read my book. But luckily for me – and for the world – that wonderful man is still very much alive and doing exactly what I want a leader in today’s chaotic world to do. AN: As a Catholic woman, I was incredibly intrigued, fascinated and impressed with your book. What type of reaction has the subject of this novel conjured up with readers? AB: I’ll be honest. Before Forgiveness 4 You was published, I expected a lot of excitement among advertising folks – I thought I was writing a wry tell-all along the lines of Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to the End . But the interest from advertising people has been lukewarm. Catholics though, especially Catholics of the baby-boom generation (the ones who remind me of Mrs. Seaton, in the novel), have responded in a more profound way than I ever could have predicted. One woman, a very devout longtime Catholic, wrote to say she was buying copies for everyone in leadership at her parish. I’ve had notes from women in their 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s saying, “You wrote about the Church I always wanted to belong to.” It’s been extremely gratifying that people with real religious questions have gravitated to this book and the questions it asks. AN: What can readers learn about you through this book as well as your past work? AB: That’s such a wonderful question. I’ve written three novels, all very different. The first was semi- autobiographical, about a young mother raising an ethereal and mildly disabled child; the second was dark and literary, about death and a mathematical formula that might explain infinity; the third – this one – is a satire. But they’re all about regret, about searching for truth and trying to make up for past mistakes. About how to make peace with the things you cannot control and live with grace and do your part in the world. I know that sounds lofty, but it’s the only thing I write about, from a different angle every time. What people can learn is how they themselves think about these things. My books are an opportunity to question really fundamental problems of life: how to love, what we owe each other, whether it’s possible to make contact with an unknown God. AN: What are you working on now? AB: I hope this isn’t a disappointing answer, but nothing . I decided when I was done with this book that I had to explore those issues about how to be a human being in the real world, as well as on the page. Right now, I’m concentrating on the people in my life: a husband, three children and my community. I’m volunteering my time – mostly in the area of homelessness and hunger – because I have the time and the resources and it’s a privilege to be able to do some small thing to help. I’m reading a great deal: new books, old books, and things I love from the past (like John Updike’s Rabbit series) but haven’t read in years. I don’t know how long this phase will last, but I’m enjoying it. AN: Immediately answer: No matter the location, if you could spend your day doing some of your favorite things, where would you be and what would you do? AB: In the Black Hills of South Dakota, with my husband and all three of my children and their partners, reading, eating, riding motorcycles and breathing clean air. New novel poses questions on ethics and religion BOOK OF THE MONTH Forgiveness 4 You By Ann Bauer Arcadia News Book Club July 30, 2015, 6:30 p.m. amanda@arcadianews.com

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Lindstrom Family Auto Wash PROFESSIONAL DETAIL SERVICES Engine Cleaning • Dress (top only) • Express Shampoo Express Wax • Leather Cleaning Conditioner • Complete Interior Exterior Over Spray Removal ARCADIA NEWS ARCADIA NEWS ARCADIA NEWS Page 53 July 2015 By Craig Goossen I was always taught that you should do what you love and follow your passion. I remember kids standing in front of the classroom in grade school pronouncing their dreams of becoming a professional athlete, a fireman or the president of the United States of America. When the teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I looked my classmates in the eye and said I wanted to work in a record store. The crowd of 12-year-olds in attendance looked at me like I was a Martian. I look back in retrospect and realize that I may not have been shooting for the stars with that announcement, but less than six years later a small record shop on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California was my office for the next five years and it was most definitely a dream come true. I could have worked there forever, but I had to move in hot pursuit to other passions. This month’s music mix features a few brave artists coming to visit our sun-soaked town this month, so dig into these tracks and hopefully it gets your passion flowing. MUSIC NOTES WILCO: HATE IT HERE (2007) It’s a Fourth of July party weekend at Salt River Fields and Wilco will take the field with Dr. Dog opening for them. Wilco is one of the great American bands and if you haven’t seen them before, don’t let this opportunity pass. Wilco performs on Friday, July 3 at Salt River Fields, 7555 N. Pima Road in North Scottsdale. Tickets start at $25 and the show is open to all ages. LADY ANTEBELLUM: LIE WITH ME (2014) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, again and again: It just isn’t summer in Phoenix without big country shows at Ak-Chin Pavilion. Lady Antebellum performs on Saturday, July 11 at Ak- Chin Pavilion, 2121 N. 83rd Ave. in Phoenix. Tickets start at $30. HELIO SEQUENCE: UPWARD MOBILITY (2015) The duo from Oregon just released its sixth album and they come to the Crescent on the tail end of their U.S. summer tour. Helio Sequence performs on Thursday, July 16 at the Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave. in downtown Phoenix. Tickets are $15 and the show is for guests 21 and older. STEPHEN STILLS: GO BACK HOME (1970) Stills is an American music legend and when a legend rolls into our town, we need to show the love. This venue is the perfect spot to see this 70-year-old pull from his 50-plus-year catalogue, maybe even this cherry track from his 1970 solo LP which has Eric Clapton soloing all over it. Stephen Stills will perform on Sunday, July 26 at the Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St. in Phoenix. Tickets start at $35 and the show is for all ages. SOCIAL DISTORTION: IT COULDA BEEN ME (1990) Social D in the heat of summer at the Marquee is a no brainer, and the bonus is the band will celebrate the anniversary of their classic self-titled release and play it in its entirety. Social Distortion performs on Tuesday, July 28 at The Marquee, 730 N. Mill Ave. in Tempe. Tickets are $35 and the show is open to all ages. A dream come true: passion for music began at young age