{"id":198,"date":"2012-08-10T20:59:29","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T20:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/?p=198"},"modified":"2012-08-10T21:16:08","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T21:16:08","slug":"198","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/?p=198","title":{"rendered":"ForeWord Magazine, Fall 2012 issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Turtle-Girl from East Pukapuka<\/strong>
\nCole Alpaugh
\nCoffeetown Press
\nSoftcover $15.95 (288pp)
\n978-1-60381-116-3<\/p>\n


\nWith a tsunami about to overrun their home,
\nthe islanders of East Pukapuka stand with
\nhands linked, facing the end that their gods
\nhave created for them. But one small girl named
\nButter is missing, as she desperately tries to rescue
\nthe sick animals she nurses. According to
\nher culture, animals cannot enter heaven. Thus
\nshe believes it\u2019s vital to prolong their lives. The
\nisland is heaven to Butter: \u201cWhat would eternity
\nbe like if you couldn\u2019t lie on a sandy beach with
\na chirping gecko sunning himself on your belly,
\nlicking his eye membranes and trying to change
\nhis color to look just like you?\u201d
\n


\nButter\u2019s mother was The Keeper of the
\nBooks, books left to the island by a soldier
\nbut that have since become waterlogged and
\nunreadable. The islanders named their babies
\nafter the authors or characters. Hence the old
\nsea captain who rescues Butter is named Jesus.
\nAfter Butter evades drowning by clinging to
\nthe shell of a turtle, Jesus mistakes her for a
\nhalf-girl, half-turtle and imagines the riches
\nthat will reward his discovery. She, in turn,
\nmistakes him for a god named Jesus.
\n


\nMeanwhile, two small-time crooks accidentally
\nbecome big-time pirates when the light
\nfrom a meteor abets their robbery of a shipload
\nof cocaine. Like a modern-day Vladimir and
\nEstragon in Waiting for Godot, Ratu (a kingly
\ntitle) and Jope (urban slang for weed) are
\nfriends of unequal intelligence waiting for the
\ncannibals they have been warned by the shark
\ngod are coming to avenge the cocaine theft.
\n


\nIn another part of the world, a paralyzed,
\nseemingly comatose ex-ski racer named Dante
\ncan move only one finger, but it\u2019s enough for
\nhim to click the remote control to travel channel
\nfootage of East Pukapuka, which he determines
\nis his \u201chome.\u201d Who better than Dante to
\nlead Butter back to her island, with the help of
\nJesus and a lovely companion named Ophelia?
\n


\nThe book is playful and comic in its creation
\nof such misunderstandings and coincidences.
\nAs their stories unfold and intersect,
\none comes to believe the island is indeed
\nparadise, as Jesus plays a heroic role and the
\ncannibal, Albino Paul, the shark god, and the
\nbirds play out a finale resounding with echoes
\nof myth.
\n


\nCole Alpaugh is a former award-winning
\njournalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee. Currently
\na freelance photographer and writer, Alpaugh is
\nalso author of The Bear in a Muddy Tutu<\/p>\n

(July) KAREN MULVAHILL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Turtle-Girl from East Pukapuka Cole Alpaugh Coffeetown Press Softcover $15.95 (288pp) 978-1-60381-116-3 With a tsunami about to overrun their home, the islanders of East Pukapuka stand with hands linked, facing the end that their gods have created for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colealpaugh.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}