Buddha in paper: Not-so holy roller still rolling

Killing the Buddha, an anthology of religious eccentricity co-written by local author Peter Manseau, is now available in paperback. Manseau, a fairly recent transplant to Charlottesville, was profiled in the Hook in February: "Roadkill Buddha: Meet a not-so-holy roller."

Subtitled A Heretic's Bible, Killing The Buddha is an anthology of religious eccentricity in America. Dispatches from the road include a visit to a mosque built by Cat Stevens; a conversation with a lapsed Calvinist stripper; a congregation praying loudly for a death sentence to be handed down in their midst; a possessed hermaphrodite and the men who aimed to exorcise her/him/it.

"One of the reasons we wrote this book is that we're tired of religion books that try to convince you with tradition and pious stories," Manseau told Hook columnist Elizabeth Kiem, after a well-received "tent revival meeting," more recognizable as an innovative book reading.

The paperback is published by a Simon & Schuster imprint.

Peter Manseau
FILE PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO

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