"With a tortured soul and a brain demented/The poet's love is hate tormented."
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Cajun for the Troops by A. Benton Phillips (SS) Trafford Publishing
book review by John E. Roper
Attempting to pigeon-hole the author's latest work into a specific genre is about as easy as holding onto live eels with greasy hands. Blending elements of Robert Service and Dave Berry with splashes of O. Henry and Touched By An Angel thrown into the mix for good measure, Phillips' book of short stories and poems runs the gamut between sentimentality and off-beat humor.
The book begins with a story that could have come straight from Guideposts. Combining military adventure with spirituality, The Kiss of an Angel appears to set the stage for a work of inspirational fiction. The slightly bawdy poem about a whale enamored with a submarine which follows it, though, gives a better indication of the eclectic variety that is to come. Phillips goes on to write an assortment of prose and poetry that includes a tale of a necklace reminiscent of the themes found in the works of Guy de Maupassant or Anton Chekhov, a darkly humorous werewolf story, a tongue-in-cheek rant against George Bush, and a long collection of linked poems about Santa's visits to personages both real and imagined. He even goes so far as to add two sequels to The Cremation of Sam McGee.
The author's offerings are quirky and laced with deliberate silliness, but they are not written simply to amuse the reader. Like with his previous book, Cajun Conspiracy, Phillips has chosen to donate the royalties received from this work to charity.