Charles Nauman

Pola: the Mysterious Communications of a Gone Woman Charles Nauman

A Love That Was Dangerous To Herself And Others. To look at ourselves - divided and taken apart. And then find out how we go together again. In Pola, that journey is a vividly personal exploration into the sacred unity of Art, Mind and Nature. Pola is the chronicle of a Gone Woman, gone into a nether-land of mystery and discovery. Her wounds of schizophrenic-suicidal madness are met with the voices of her equally wounded lover, a soldier-boy she sees murdered as he flees into the forest. It is a story that has its roots in true events witnessed by the author, events into which the author digs deep in the underground of psychology and mythology to postulate ideas of regenerative communication and madness as break-through rather than breakdown.

Review of Pola: The Mysterious Communications
of a Gone Woman

Filmmaker, poet and novelist Charles Nauman?s latest work, Pola, The Mysterious Communications of a Gone Woman (available now from Plain View Press) is a psychologically driven journey into the ?sacred unity? of art, mind and nature. The narrative follows a ?gone woman? named Pola who, in Nauman?s words, has drifted into a nether-land of mystery and discovery. ?Her wounds of schizophrenic madness are met with the equally wounded voices of her equally wounded lover, a soldier boy she sees murdered as he flees into the forest.?

While Nauman is no doubt covering familiar ground by delving into the mental and spiritual wounds of human madness, the fresh, distinctive voice he brings to the genre is remarkable. Nauman?s prose is a flagrant and vividly poetic compliment to a purposely nomadic narrative that moves between its characters divided introspection, and fanatical exploits.

Overall, Pola is a success, in that Nauman has accomplished precisely what he set out to accomplish with this novel. His blend of poetry and introspection does indeed force its reader to consider consciousness beyond its typical potential. That said, Pola is not merely the story of a disturbed woman, rather it is the story of a broken society that has, in all its wisdom, failed to break the surface of human suffering. Nauman?s Pola, in this regard, is one of the very few of its kind?it is a carefully constructed, intensely lyrical translation of a harrowing and unconventional look at love, loss and the ensuing madness. Nauman?s expedition into psychology, mythology and the human condition is fascinating, sensitive and, above all, engaging.

?Daniel Kine, Indie Lit Now