The Sunstalker

Parks'Fugue: Fugue: a polyphonic composition in which one or more themes stated successively are developed contrapuntally. Gordon Parks new novel, "The Sun Stalker," based on the life of Joseph Mallord William Turner, is a fugue, blending one man's quest to, artistically, solve a mystery of nature as he seeks to understand his own purpose in life. In the process, the author answers that question for the reader as well.

Parks' effort is a splendid display of his polymorphic skills as a composer, poet and magician, presented in the language of light and redemption. On the book jacket it's explained that he wrote the book "to fulfill a promise to a poet friend who passed away before producing the film he dreamed of on this turbulent painter." This turned into an eight-year labor, adding another chapter to a staggering list of accomplishments. He seeks to provide closure for the question that haunts every artist, "why me." Thus "The Sun Stalker" becomes a parable for Everyman. Parks' fugue is a quest to understand the nature of the light in our lives; it provides the hope of redemption for all of us, when we accept that which is placed before us with grace and a sense of gratitude. Lester Sloan