SAINT RICHARD PARKER (His search for love and enlightenment across India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia) tells the tale of an investigative journalist and entrepreneur, Richard Parker, who is fired after writing a story that reveals his boss exports beef. He heads home to his country village to recharge his batteries, then sets out on a redemptive journey to find enlightenment. And he joins Tinder. His hot online matches send the self-described “rice-bag convert” on a spiritual quest across—as the book’s subtitle indicates—India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The journey takes him through a farcical comedy of errors as his lust for true love and spiritual fulfillment collide, sparking a series of mix-ups and lost chances.

SAINT RICHARD PARKER’s strengths are the author’s keen sense of the absurd and rapier wit. His humor works very well, whether expressed as dialogue, situational commentary, or parody. Franco also paints a fascinating series of settings in the satirical travelogue. His descriptive detail covers crowded markets, busy slums, sleazy and spiritual sex retreats, seascapes, and dense jungles equally well. The book’s protagonist bears the same name as the tiger who symbolizes God and fearful faith in Life of Pi—but, far from being fierce, this protagonist is a bumbling yet believable character who carries the book through most of its weaknesses.

Written in the first person, protagonist Parker’s self-deprecating point of view mocks his philosophical yearnings as it sets up the strange twists and turns that drive this satire. Franco excels especially when portraying the absurdities in the life of a modern man who must confront longstanding cultural and religious dogma. However, many of the secondary characters are similar and come across as love interests used as expositional plot devices. Stronger secondary characters and a better-defined objective for the protagonist (beyond love and sexual satisfaction) would steady the plot’s course. It might also create an ending that heightens the protagonist’s journey above the theme that “there’s no place like home.”

Readers familiar with the slang, culture, and history of India and Southeast Asia will enjoy how the author pokes fun at the contradictions within a society of high-tech and scientific prowess that still struggles with centuries of prejudice and environmental problems. For the unfamiliar, the author clearly sets out the issues and contradictions in modern-day India and Southeast Asia. In this, it is clear the noted ethnobiologist’s academic credentials serve him well. (Franco is also the author of A Dowryless Wedding and several academic texts.) Overall the writing style is crisp, and the narrative is engaging.

Author Merlin Franco’s satirical wit and keen, absurdist humor are blunted in SIR RICHARD PARKER (His search for love and enlightenment across India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia) only when the book meanders through a few half-baked twists and underdeveloped characters.

~Robin Harvey for IndieReader