NEW YORK BOOK REVIEW: STICK MAN BY RICHARD ROSSI

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
new york city, New York, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) February 22, 2011 -- Richard Rossi first came to my attention in the late nineties when he was a maverick minister who became the target of protests by Fred Phelps, an anti-gay fundamentalist whose minions were calling Rossi a fag lover because he transformed a conservative Baptist church in Long Beach into a hospice to care for AIDS patients. In Rossi's arresting new novel "Stick Man," he explores a similar battle between a monstrous fundamentalist pastor who battles to control a creative and courageous boy.

The boy's name is Jeremiah Young, and he grows up in Pittsburgh. The coming-of-age story looks inside the harrowing relationship between Jeremiah and three dominating figures: his manic depressive father, his fundamentalist neighbor, and Stick Man.

"Stick Man" begins with prose that is poetry on a sublime level. "First loves hung like photographs on the walls of my subconscious..." the narrator begins, taking us inside his head as he remembers his tortured youth and obsession with his first love. The tale quickly turns frightening when the crucifix at the local Catholic church transforms into the titular nightmare manifestation Stick Man.

Jeremiah tries everything from voodoo to exorcism to free himself from Stick Man, but nothing works until he meets a girl with matchless beauty he calls Angel who banishes his bad dreams. When she vanishes without explanation, Stick Man returns with a vengeance and Jeremiah must find her to survive.

When Jeremiah's bi-polar father goes off the deep end, Jeremiah is taken in by the bizarre fundamentalist family next door who tell him Angel is "worldly" and his salvation depends on immersing himself in evangelistic outreach to save other children. The deeper Jeremiah is indoctrinated into the conservative Christian subculture, the more he sees the dark side of religion. Jeremiah determines to break free and find his lost love. His desire to love and be loved drives the story.

Jeremiah jouneys cross country from Pittsburgh to California and discovers secrets that reveal the truth about fundamentalist faith. His reencounter with Angel is richly written as a cascade of overwhemling emotions sweep over the reader.

This is a first novel by an author who is clearly putting his feelings on paper to guide others who are attempting to release themselves from toxic faith expressions and reclaim a sense of their own identity and intuition. Like Rossi's own experience with Fred Phelps, the book has already been banned and burned by religious hate groups because of it's gospel of unconditional love and inclusion. Rossi saves his most powerful revelations for the final pages when Jeremiah writes a letter to Angel about the lessons he has learned about faith, life and love.

NEW YORK BOOK REVIEW by Elizabeth Wagner

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