“Fragments of a Crooked Mirror” author announces a free contest

Amos ♦ June 8, 2011 ♦ Leave Your Comment

Fragments of a Crooked Mirror

Fragments of a crooked mirror, a book about the bill written in Uganda. Enter the contest to win a free copy by liking the following page:

 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fragments-of-a-Crooked-Mirror/191386267575093?sk=wall

Would you love to learn more about Fragments of a Crooked Miror? You can watch this short video and enter for a chance to win an autographed copy of the book before it’s released to the general public. Click on ‘like’ for your chance to win. Contest ends July 4th, 2011. Watch the video here:

All you have to do is like the facebook page

 

my review:

Pongor, Vincent Tamas,  David Tarcali, illustrator. “Fragments of a Crooked Mirror’, Creative House Press, 2011.

Legislating Love in Uganda

Amos Lassen

 

Most of us are well aware of the ways gay in Uganda re treated (although mistreated is probably a better word). We hear of the horrors and the atmosphere of hate and find it hard to relate to but even worse is that we know we are not getting the entire story. Vincent Pongor wants to let us know what is really happening there to our gay brothers and sisters.

Pongor lives in Budapest where he was born and raised but he feels that he cannot be silent about what is happening in Uganda. He believes in heroes and he dedicates his book to them—to those “who fight for nothing more than being themselves”. He also gives a special nod to Rachel Maddow and Lady GaGa “who understand that we were born this way”.

Pongor bases his book on the anti-homosexual bill that was written in Uganda. It was radical in that the death penalty could be the price one paid on serial homosexual offenders. The bill has not yet passed and trouble continues.

Pongor’s book does something a bit different being set in another world where heterosexuals are in the minority and the anti-heterosexual bill was successfully passed because it had organized religion behind it as well as a councilman and a local priest. So when the author does here is very clever—he turns to tables and we see the reaction of heterosexuals’ who are discriminated against.

They rally but the police break them up and the leaders are executed. Interesting to see how the differences fall. The book deals with other issues as well such as stereotyping, bullying and religion.

We are quick to understand that the focus of the book is on religion and as thinking adults we know what organized religion can do. Furthermore since we really do not know for sure when the scriptures really mean they can be used for any situation. We must remember that the Bible was written by men, divinely inspired or not, the men who wrote the Bible were men who could make mistakes. It was man who decided which books the Bible should contain and which rules should be observed. It is only common sense to understand that the most important thing that we learn from the Bible is to love one another as we love God.

The very idea that the government of Uganda might be able to pass a bill that would kill some of its citizens as outrageous. Are we even capable of imaging what kind of world we would have after a bill like that? Pongor’s use of allegory here is brilliant because what he says is so true. O do not know if the author is a native speaker or not but this English is excellent and his writing is sublime. While he used fiction to get his idea across, it is very effective and at times frightening. The book is also courageous in that something like this can certainly rile the Ugandan powers that be.

“Fragments” is reality based but uses reality as a jumping off place as it looks at what happens and here it becomes fiction. We read about good and evil and we see that appearances deceive and nothing is always what it appears to be.

I recommend this for several reasons—it is important that we know what is going on in the world and it is about time someone took Uganda to task. Furthermore, it is well written and compelling and necessary for us to know.