The Prophet Pasqual is set in Hawaii in modern times and deals with Hawaii's two realities. The first is the postcard-pretty one. The second is comprised of the grit, heat, pollution, greed, racism and lust in the 50th state. Population pressure and cultural short circuits come home to roost in small town characters with old-fashioned needs. Pasqual is a New Age emissary, down on his luck. His friend Ray Lloyd is a reformed pot grower, now a tree farmer, who can't find love but for awhile finds adventure by bankrolling an up-and-coming guru. The ultimate peddler, Charlie Fruit, came to town on a chance for warm weather and provides show-biz management. Richie Smith provides the music; he's a tough guy, blues guitarist, laborer, alcoholic and drug addict, and father to the mystical child, Althea. Richie was married three times, most recently to Althea's mother, who plays the harp and seeks heavenly love with personal auditions. The Prophet Pasqual is a fun tale of the modern tropics and characters striving to keep pace with a world out-racing its headlights. If you like Hawaii, you will see a side of it here unavailable to casual visitors.

The Prophet Pasqual follows an aspiring guru in Hawaii’s other tourist industry. The characters presented here blossom mightily. In the tradition of Algren and Bukowski, on the mean streets with mordant humor, here is the other side of Paradise, far from postcard pretty, showing the heat, dust, racism and magic of Hawaii.        —Martin  Shepard, Publisher, The Permanent Press