The Other America by Decio De Carvalho: A Cultural Perspective of America

When young journalism student Mark Taggett reported to his temp job at a local electronics store one morning, he was prepared for another mundane "day at the office", serving customers, ringing up cash receipts, and stocking shelves. Little did he know this would be a day like any other, when the very foundations of American society would be shaken to its very core.

For this was September 11th, 2001.

Mark watches in horror as a nightmarish display of Hollywood proportions plays out on one of the store's display televisions: not one, but two commercial airliners careen into the World Trade Center Towers. Fire and destruction, misery and death play out over the screens, changing Mark Taggett forever, just as America has been changed forever.

However, as the days go by and the horrible incident recedes into the background, Mark continues on his everyday life. He's a young, aspiring writer - who paradoxically struggles with the ultimate veracity and validity of words to express meaning - who has a budding career in journalism to pursue.

He has no time to ruminate on this horrible disaster, or the lonely old foreign man whom he encountered in his store that day, who'd wept over what had befallen "his America". Educated in humanistic schools of deconstruction and philosophy, Mark treats his mother's recent conversion to Christianity with suspect, and regards all matters of "faith" and "belief" as things only fit for uneducated, ignorant minds.

However, when his sometime girlfriend Donna becomes more and more politically progressive and steeped in the verses of feminism, (she's suddenly unsure if attachment to a man is really what she wants), Mark starts to question his world view, wondering if he will become a victim of his own agnosticism and lack of faith in anything reliable.

By chance, he meets a nursing student named Abby; a young, vivacious personality, raised in a Christian home, possessor of a dogmatic, energetic faith that repels and intrigues Mark all at once. He's drawn closer to her, and is exposed to a world that will never leave him the same.

This is Decia de Carvalho's first novel, published with Xulon Press, after spending many years with his wife in the ministry. One thing that must be kept in mind while reading The Other America is that he wrote the entire manuscript in his "second language", English, and this itself is quite an accomplishment.

The narrative is slow at times, but after all, this is a character study and not a breathless, action packed novel. We are meant to absorb the character of Mark Taggett and see the world through his eyes, associate with him, and experience the changes he does.

Its style is very similar to other novels written from a second language point of view, such as The Shadow Lines by Amitov Ghosh, The Lonely Londoners by Sam Shepard, or Ways of Dying by Zakes Mda, with the fundamental difference that it's told from the Christian perspective critiquing a post-modern world, rather than from within the post-modern world.

The story perhaps would have been served better if there had been more emphasis put on revealing a character's thoughts through dialogue rather than sometimes weighty narrative exposition, however, this is Carvalho's first novel, written and edited completed by himself and family members. Had it just a slice more dialogue and a little less exposition, it would be an excellent character-study counter-point to the post-modern novels most college students are required to read throughout their careers.

The Other America is currently out of print with Xulon, but used and new copies can be ordered through Amazon.com. ISBN Number: 1 - 59781 - 512 - 8.

3 out of 5 stars