Synopsis
A PLACE CALLED SCHUGARA
A PLACE CALLED SCHUGARA
Who among us has not dreamed of going to the corner store and simply disappearing? Travers Landeman, a businessman from Ohio, fakes his death on the Caribbean island Mabouhey. The question is: does he get away with it? Travers flees: from a loveless marriage, from a failing business, from blackmail. He had had a close relationship with his nephew Matthew, but, as the years passed, he let his nephew slip away, he let himself slip away. Matthew, a teenager, is sexually abused by his parish priest, Father Art. Matt reaches out to his uncle for help, but Travers turns away. Matthew commits suicide by shooting himself, but Travers knows it is his selfish fear that pulled the trigger. On Mabouhey Travers is injured when he rescues a child, Schugara, from the great shark, Kintura. Travers and Schugara’s mother, Marguerite, fall in love and build their home on the side of a volcano at a place they name after Marguerite’s daughter, a place called Schugara. The years pass. It appears that Travers has gotten away with it. . . .until a private investigator, Albert Sidney McNab, shows up. He has been hired by the Atlantis Fidelity Insurance Company to bring Travers back to Ohio.
Who among us has not dreamed of going to the corner store and simply disappearing? Travers Landeman, a businessman from Ohio, fakes his death on the Caribbean island Mabouhey. The question is: does he get away with it? Travers flees: from a loveless marriage, from a failing business, from blackmail. He had had a close relationship with his nephew Matthew, but, as the years passed, he let his nephew slip away, he let himself slip away. Matthew, a teenager, is sexually abused by his parish priest, Father Art. Matt reaches out to his uncle for help, but Travers turns away. Matthew commits suicide by shooting himself, but Travers knows it is his selfish fear that pulled the trigger. On Mabouhey Travers is injured when he rescues a child, Schugara, from the great shark, Kintura. Travers and Schugara’s mother, Marguerite, fall in love and build their home on the side of a volcano at a place they name after Marguerite’s daughter, a place called Schugara. The years pass. It appears that Travers has gotten away with it. . . .until a private investigator, Albert Sidney McNab, shows up. He has been hired by the Atlantis Fidelity Insurance Company to bring Travers back to Ohio.
A Chicago bookseller, Joe Rogers, leads a group of amateur archeologists to Mabouhey. At the dig site he unearths an ancient treasure, a jeweled mask dating to the Arawak era. His ankle is broken. Joe is carried on a stretcher to Schugara, where Marguerite tells him Travers’ story.
A Chicago bookseller, Joe Rogers, leads a group of amateur archeologists to Mabouhey. At the dig site he unearths an ancient treasure, a jeweled mask dating to the Arawak era. His ankle is broken. Joe is carried on a stretcher to Schugara, where Marguerite tells him Travers’ story.
What then transpires at a place called Schugara, is, if not a state of wonder, certainly matters worthy of thought. This much happens: the mask is taken to the United States, where it is auctioned at Sotheby's by Esmerelda McNab, United Nations Ambassador of the world's newest nation, the Commonwealth of the Island of Mabouhey, despite protestors from Columbia University, who denounce the sale as "cultural genocide." This much happens as well: Father Art is beaten to death in his jail cell while awaiting trial. Are the other aspects of SCHUGARA's denouement, its dotting of "i"s and crossing of "t"'s, satisfying and satisfactory? The reader must decide.
What then transpires at a place called Schugara, is, if not a state of wonder, certainly matters worthy of thought. This much happens: the mask is taken to the United States, where it is auctioned at Sotheby's by Esmerelda McNab, United Nations Ambassador of the world's newest nation, the Commonwealth of the Island of Mabouhey, despite protestors from Columbia University, who denounce the sale as "cultural genocide." This much happens as well: Father Art is beaten to death in his jail cell while awaiting trial. Are the other aspects of SCHUGARA's denouement, its dotting of "i"s and crossing of "t"'s, satisfying and satisfactory? The reader must decide.