Sweet Mother Prophesy (A Buddha for an Abominable Age)

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Although punk was a British musical phenomenon, it eventually became an
international youth movement that has influenced Canadian writers. In
this “novel” (a mixture of poetry, prose, notes, and even a
collage), Fredericton alternative musician Andrew Titus chronicles the
unconventional lives of the members of a jazz-punk group called Sweet
Mother Prophecy.

A coherent story can be traced through the unconventional structure.
The plot deals with the efforts of childhood friends Ich and Alovicious
to create a unique alternative sound. They recruit Scarecrow Joe, a
talented “busker ... freak with blue hair,” into their new band.
Then Joe dies of cancer, which depresses Alovicious. Tragedy gives this
tale “heart,” along with the requisite crises.

Humour further humanizes this book. Alovicious crudely propositions
music critic Helen Back, and her quote about “‘the most insane,
beastly and inauthentic bunch of jazz punks on the planet!’” is used
in a pub’s concert advertisement.