I lent this very funny book to someone while backpacking in India - and have been looking for it ever since. Can anyone help?
Title: possibly “The Ark” or “The Flood”
Author: don't know - possibly a translation from French
Setting:
A village in the Pyrenees, accessible only by way of a bridge across a great chasm. The mountain on which the village is built, is riddled with caverns and these caverns act as resonating amplifiers whenever the village church bell is sounded.
Characters:
The Priest – a young naïve man, new to the post
The Jew – an older, more experienced man; cynical and sceptical - ?the local teacher
The Tavern Keeper’s daughter – young, nubile and madly in love with the priest
The Tavern Keeper and The Carpenter
The Story:
The priest gets a phone call in the middle of the night from God. God tells him to build an Ark as there will be a great flood. The priest points out that this has been done before and expresses doubts about the identity of the caller. Dialogue ensues which convinces the Priest.
In the morning, the priest goes to the church to ring the bell and summon all the townsfolk so he can tell them God’s message. Just before he rings the bell, the town’s pigeons madly flutter and fly away – they know what is coming.
When the bell is rung the caverns under the town resonate and amplify the sound to ear splitting levels, driving the townsfolk out of their homes. It’s like an earthquake and things fall off shelves, fall over etc. The people are very angry and start searching for the idiot who rang the bell. They find the priest who proceeds to tell them that God has commanded him to organise the building of an Ark. They tell him he was dreaming or crazy or whatever but he insists that it must be done. The priest visits all the villagers he needs to help him to ask for supplies such as timber etc.
The villagers try to avoid giving assistance but one by one something happens to make them help. Eg the carpenter says that he is too busy with his current customers. God makes a miracle and all the carpenter’s customers cancel their orders so the Priest becomes his only customer.
Meanwhile, whenever the tavern keeper’s daughter can get him alone, she tries to make love with the Priest who barely escapes each time. In between evading the young Lolita and getting the Ark built, he has metaphysical discussions with the Jew.
Also meanwhile, his superiors in Paris start hear of the goings on and tell him to stop being silly. And something to do with this causes God to collapse the bridge (?s) that connect the village to the outside world.
In the end the ark gets built and, as everyone is saying what a great load of stupidity the whole thing was, all over the world…… ”the gentle rain begins to fall.”
Title: possibly “The Ark” or “The Flood”
Author: don't know - possibly a translation from French
Setting:
A village in the Pyrenees, accessible only by way of a bridge across a great chasm. The mountain on which the village is built, is riddled with caverns and these caverns act as resonating amplifiers whenever the village church bell is sounded.
Characters:
The Priest – a young naïve man, new to the post
The Jew – an older, more experienced man; cynical and sceptical - ?the local teacher
The Tavern Keeper’s daughter – young, nubile and madly in love with the priest
The Tavern Keeper and The Carpenter
The Story:
The priest gets a phone call in the middle of the night from God. God tells him to build an Ark as there will be a great flood. The priest points out that this has been done before and expresses doubts about the identity of the caller. Dialogue ensues which convinces the Priest.
In the morning, the priest goes to the church to ring the bell and summon all the townsfolk so he can tell them God’s message. Just before he rings the bell, the town’s pigeons madly flutter and fly away – they know what is coming.
When the bell is rung the caverns under the town resonate and amplify the sound to ear splitting levels, driving the townsfolk out of their homes. It’s like an earthquake and things fall off shelves, fall over etc. The people are very angry and start searching for the idiot who rang the bell. They find the priest who proceeds to tell them that God has commanded him to organise the building of an Ark. They tell him he was dreaming or crazy or whatever but he insists that it must be done. The priest visits all the villagers he needs to help him to ask for supplies such as timber etc.
The villagers try to avoid giving assistance but one by one something happens to make them help. Eg the carpenter says that he is too busy with his current customers. God makes a miracle and all the carpenter’s customers cancel their orders so the Priest becomes his only customer.
Meanwhile, whenever the tavern keeper’s daughter can get him alone, she tries to make love with the Priest who barely escapes each time. In between evading the young Lolita and getting the Ark built, he has metaphysical discussions with the Jew.
Also meanwhile, his superiors in Paris start hear of the goings on and tell him to stop being silly. And something to do with this causes God to collapse the bridge (?s) that connect the village to the outside world.
In the end the ark gets built and, as everyone is saying what a great load of stupidity the whole thing was, all over the world…… ”the gentle rain begins to fall.”
