Twisted Design

My favorite narrative is a book entitled, Kiss Me Judas. It was written by Will Christopher Baer in 2004. I was fortunate enough to have him as a teacher in the summer of 2006. Baer's prose is hypnotic, lulling the reader deeper and deeper into the surreal world of the protagonist, Phineas Poe. This book is not only skillfully written, readers deeply identify with this anti-hero.

Glassner's discussion on the depth of immersion, that narrative requires, was fascinating. Many of his points, I already knew on an intuitive level, but I had never seen them methodically written out as he had them. Kiss Me Judas starts with a simple plot that evolves with complex phychological issues. Baer uses the urban myth, where a man's kidney is stolen, as his initial premise. The plot relies heavily on Glassner's principle of empathy, a strong sense of emotional bonding. It drives the narrative.Even as it twists, readers are compelled to understand Poe's motives based solely on empathy.

Glassner states, "Great characters lead two fascinating lives at the same time." Phineas Poe is forced to lead two lives as well. Fresh from a phychiatric ward, he is the disgraced cop mourning for his dead wife. He meets Jude at a hotel. She's mesmerizing and predatory, as Poe discovers, when he awakens in a bathtub minus a kidney. His second life begins then, as he becomes a hunter. He tracks Jude with this strange mixture of hatred and infatuation. In Poe's outer life, he is practically dieing on every page from impromptu surgery complications. His inner life resembles a carnival fun house. Grief distorts his reactions one way while hatred and love drive other motives.

This story employs many of Glassner's outlined techniques, but it mainly depends on plot twists. Readers are unprepared when Phineas Poe leaves the hospital in a bloody mess in favor of tracking down Jude. It seems counter productive, but grief and anger can produce irrational results. Many readers were surprised that this character lived at all. The story also makes use of fractured and shattered time. We get glimpses into Poe's life when he was a cop. We get snippets of what his wife was like before her death. The story then pitches forward to Poe's present state where he literally has nothing else to lose. He becomes obsessed with catching the woman who cut out his kidney.