The Missionary Position

Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, feted by politicians, the Church and the world's media, Mother Teresa of Calcutta appears to be on the fast track to sainthood. But what, asks Christopher Hitchens, makes Mother Teresa so divine?

A HILARIOUS, SATIRICAL NOVEL FROM AWARD-WINNING INDIAN WRITER. Funny and sad, satirical and humane, this novel tells the interlinked stories of three unforgettable men whose trajectories cross in Denmark: the flamboyant Ravi, the fundamentalist Karim, and the unnamed and pragmatic Pakistani narrator. As the unnamed narrator copes with his divorce, and Ravi—despite his exterior of skeptical flamboyance—falls deeply in love with a beautiful woman who is incapable of responding in kind, Karim, their landlord, goes on with his job as a taxi driver and his regular Friday Qur’an sessions. But is he going on with something else? Who is Karim? And why does he disappear suddenly at times or receive mysterious phone calls? When a “terrorist attack” takes place in town, all three men find themselves embroiled in doubt, suspicion, and, perhaps, danger. An acerbic commentary on the times, How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position is also a bitter-sweet, spell-binding novel about love and life today.

In the vein of an emergent Native Pacific brand of cultural studies, Repositioning the Missionary critically examines the cultural and political stakes of the historic and present-day movement to canonize Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores (1627–1672), the Spanish Jesuit missionary who was martyred by Mata'pang of Guam while establishing the Catholic mission among the Chamorros in the Mariana Islands. The work juxtaposes official, popular, and critical perspectives of the movement to complicate prevailing ideas about colonialism, historiography, and indigenous culture and identity in the Pacific. The book is divided into three sections. The first, "From Above, Working the Native," focuses exclusively on the narratological reconsolidation of official Roman Catholic Church viewpoints as staked in the historic (seventeenth century) and contemporary (twentieth century) movements to canonize San Vitores, including the symbolic costs of these viewpoints for Native Chamorro cultural and political possibilities not in line with Church views. Section two, "From Below: Working the Saint," shifts attention and perspective to local, competing forms of Chamorro piety. In their effort to canonize San Vitores, Natives also rework the saint to negotiate new cultural and social canons for themselves and in ways that produce new meanings for their island. "From Behind: Transgressive Histories" shifts from official and lay Roman and Chamorro Catholic viewpoints to the author’s own critical project of rendering alternative portrayals of San Vitores and Mata'pang. Theoretically innovative and provocative, humorous, and inspired, Repositioning the Missionary melds poststructuralist, feminist, Native studies, and cultural studies analytic and political frameworks with an intensely personal voice to model a new critical interdisciplinary approach to the study of indigenous culture and history.

Would you want to join in a football game or play pool with blood dripping from your penis? Is there any chance that you'd be anything but short-tempered, irrational and depressed with blood dripping from your penis? 'The Man's Exam on Female Troubles' explains just some of the 'problems' women endure and questions whether men, given the same biology, wouldn't behave in the same way. . . In this hilarious collection of journalism Emily Prager offers us her views on every-thing from the royal family to abortion. Covering twenty-five years of her writing for the NATIONAL LAMPOON, TITTERS, PENTHOUSE, the NEW YORK OBSERVER, the GUARDIAN and the NEW YORK TIMES Styles Section, IN THE MISSIONARY POSITION is a fascinating social history of two decades as well as giving refreshingly irreverent advice on surviving Christmas, plastic surgery and safe sex.

How I got a job preaching to Porn Stars; and learned to love it.

David Eller is an American missionary in Venezuela, married to missionary nurse, Christie. Together they rescue homeless children in Caracas. But for David, that isn't enough. The supply of homeless children is endless because of massive poverty and the oppressive policies of the Venezuelan government, led by the Hugo Chavez- like Armando Guzman. In a moment of anger, David publicly rails against the government, unaware that someone dangerous might be listening- a revolutionary looking for recruits. David falls into an unimaginable nightmare of espionage, ending in a desperate, life-or-death gamble to flee the country with his wife and son, with all the resources of a corrupt dictatorship at their heels.

"Anji's story is engaging, insightful, heart wrenching and at times, very, very funny. The Reverend Kate Bottley, Broadcaster and Priest (As seen on Gogglebox) This book is an entertaining and moving autobiography of the extraordinary and unusual life of Australian mother - Anji Barker. A qualified social worker and a United Reformed Church Minister, Anji has spent the last 30 years living in poor urban communities in Australia, Thailand and the UK. She is passionate about social justice and grassroots transformation. Her faith has lead her to jump in boots and all fighting for those who are pushed to the margins. Anji shares openly and honestly about faith and doubt, the challenge of raising children in difficult places, as well as the joy that this life brings. She reminds us that our mistakes and failings can be our assets and that God delights in the strangest, most unlikely bits of who we are. Her stories will make you laugh and cry, inspire and encourage you. "This is a delightful must-read for anyone who dares to live a life for others." Brian D. McLaren

While the writing of other ethnic women has already been receiving considerable attention, the writing of Asian American women has not. (Un)Doing is the first feminist theoretical work to look at writing by such contemporary Asian American writers as Amy Tan, Fae Myenne Ng, R. A. Sasaki, Gish Jen, and Cynthia Kadohata. Viewing them as feminist and postfeminist writers, Kafka argues that gender asymmetry in all its varied forms and guises is the major issue that they confront. Satirizing this world-wide oppression as the missionary position, Kafka urges ethnic and women of color feminist critics to focus more on commonalities rather than view differences as impenetrable barriers.