Trafford Publishing: On the Wings of Habitat: A Volunteer's Story

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On the Wings of Habitat: A Volunteer's Story

by Orest Stocco

328 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0445; ISBN 1-55369-632-8; US$27.00, C$31.00, EUR22.00, £15.50

A novel memoir with a New Age perspective. Mr. Stocco is also the author of What Would I Say Today If I Were to Die Tomorrow?.

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About the book About the author Sample excerpts Catalogue info

About the Book

Habitat for Humanity is a worldwide organization that builds homes with volunteer labour for needy people. Without volunteers to build these homes, Habitat for Humanity wouldn't exist; and ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT is a novel that explores the unique character of one specific Habitat volunteer, a mystery man called Tom Hudson; and in so doing, the story sheds light on the spiritual benefits of volunteerism.
The three questions that this novel seeks to answer are:
1. Why do people volunteer their time to a cause?
2. What's in it for them?
3. What kind of people are volunteers?
The narrator of ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT is a man who is not only a tradesman (a housepainter and drywall taper), but a seeker-writer; and it is his eclectic spiritual perspective on life that gives this novel its mystery, tension, and page-turning excitement.
ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT is a love story. Two volunteers fall in love during the blitz build, Tom Hudson and Lorie Maki; but as critical as this love may be to carry the story along, it is Tom Hudson's profoundly disturbing Christian dilemma that gives the story its drama.
Tom Hudson strikes a friendship with the narrator, Oriano DiFelice; and through this friendship his dilemma is given some measure of resolution, but only upon the condition that he rethinks some of the fundamental Christian premises that he holds dear.
Because of the narrator's unique spiritual perspective on life, tensions arise between Tom Hudson's Christian beliefs and Oriano's belief in the Spiritual Laws of Karma and Reincarnation.
This tension between traditionally held Christian beliefs and individual spiritual beliefs is also poignantly revealed in the character of Norman James Gauthier, a gay Roman Catholic Habitat volunteer who plays an important part in carrying the story to a happy resolution.
The central character of ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT is the narrator. What makes him so fascinating is his profound grasp of the spiritual life. Through him the reader is led into the mysteries of Christ's mind-boggling teaching of spiritual rebirth, and how Oriano DiFelice came to grasp the secrets of this misunderstood teaching is what makes this novel such a unique memoir, and fascinating read.
"The purpose of life," writes Orest Stocco, "is to become a giver, not a taker." And in his novel memoir he explores the nature of goodness which defines the volunteer.
A captivating story woven into the Habitat for Humanity millennium blitz build in Thunder Bay, Ontario, ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT will awaken you to your own potential for goodness. It is a story that goes against the currents of contemporary literature and dares to speak the truth about man's spiritual purpose in life.
ON THE WINGS OF HABITAT is a daring, provocative love story that will inspire you to rethink your priorities and connect you with your inner self, and fellow man.

About the Author

OREST STOCCO was born in Panettieri Calabria, Italy. He emigrated to Canada with his family and studied philosophy at university.
He lived in France for a time before taking up residence in "Eckshar Place," the home he built with his fianceé in Nipigon, Ontario where he operates his own business and writes short stories, novels and poetry.
Orest Stocco is also the author of What Would I Say Today If I Were to Die Tomorrow? Reflections on the Life of a Seeker
Click here to read about WHAT WOULD I SAY TODAY IF I WERE TO DIE TOMORROW?

Sample Excerpts

On The Wings Of Habitat is a work of my imagination, and all of the people in my novel memoir, except for the narrator, are archetypal creations or fictional composites; and identification with any one of my characters would be strictly coincidental. Events have also been imaginatively reshaped to give my story literary wholeness.
Having said this, it behooves me to define what I mean by the paradoxical phrase a "novel memoir."
By definition, a novel is "a fictional prose narrative," and a memoir is "a narrative of events based on the writer's personal observations and experiences."
Novel, of course, has a dual meaning. It can also mean "new, strange, or unusual." So a "novel memoir" can also mean a new, strange, or unusual fictional narrative based on the writer's personal observations and experiences.
On The Wings of Habitat was inspired by my Habitat for Humanity's millennium blitz build experience at St. Anthony's Square in Thunder Bay, Ontario; but the narrative that I wove into this blitz build is completely fictional.
I made every possible effort to be true to the spirit of my experience at St. Anthony's Square, but being a work of imagination the blitz build of my story transcends the actual experience and cannot be taken literally. This is what makes my story a novel memoir.
I had no intention of writing a novel on my Habitat for Humanity experience; but I did see the possibility for a short story. However, the more I wrote my story the more I realized that I had too much material for a short story; and following the lead of one of my literary mentors (Ernest Hemingway), I joyfully gave my imagination free reign.
I confess however that I would not have had a novel were it not for Tom Hudson, the "itinerant good Samaritan." Had he not struck the relationship that he did with Oriano DiFelice (my fictional self), this novel would not have happened.
Tom Hudson is a conflicted Christian, and the thrust of my novel memoir is to explore his spiritual dilemma. In the process, Tom Hudson falls in love with another volunteer and, as Robert Frost would say, "way leads on to way."
My Muse insisted I write this novel because I am an idea writer, and my Habitat for Humanity experience granted me a wonderful opportunity to explore ideas that exist outside the box of traditional Christian thought - ideas such as karma, reincarnation, dream travel, and Inner Master.
Habitat for Humanity, being a humanitarian cause that brings together peoples of all races, creeds, and politics to help promote man's most noble virtue (goodness), my Habitat experience at St. Anthony's Square provided me with the ideal context to play out my ideas in novel form.
But, I humbly confess, because I love to take ideas to their dialectical limit, my story may take you to places you may not wish to go for fear of endangering your cherished beliefs in God, salvation, and the afterlife.
Nevertheless, I do hope that you enjoy my novel memoir as much as I enjoyed writing it because, after all, it is the writer's moral imperative to seek out the truth, stretch the reader's mind, and expand society's spiritual horizons.
Having said this, let me tell you the fundamental reason why I wrote On the Wings of Habitat.
It is my contention that writers are the eyes and ears of society; but what do these eyes see, and ears hear?
"Life is absurd," concludes Barney Panofsky in Mordecai Richler's last novel Barney's Version; a tragic conclusion that many creative writers come to about life. "All we have is hope, but what hope is there?" wrote another Canadian literary icon, Margaret Atwood. But life is not absurd, nor is it hopeless; and that, basically, is why I wrote On the Wings of Habitat - to offer another perspective on life.
In volume one of my novel memoirs, What Would I Say Today If I Were To Die Tomorrow?, I wrote that there is some truth in all perspectives on life, and I too believe that life can be absurd and hopeless; but writers who see life as hopeless and absurd are looking at life from a perspective that will not allow them to see life any other way.
As absurdly simple as it may be, the life we live is the life we see; and if we live by values that are inherently non self-transcending we will end up seeing life as hopeless and absurd. This, then, brings me to the underlying theme of On the Wings of Habitat - the noble virtue of goodness.
Ironically, the virtue of goodness was recently explored by another Canadian literary icon, Carol Shields, in her last novel Unless; but sadly she did not get into the heart of goodness, and for her it remained an indefinable quality. "I know goodness when I see it in a person," she said on a CBC radio interview, "but I can't define it." But goodness being a spiritual quality, and Carol Shields being one who believes that this life is all we have, it follows logically that her personal philosophy prevented her from penetrating the elusive mystery of man's spiritual nature.
As I said, the life we live is the life we see; and if we want to see the meaning and purpose of life we have to be in the "right place". And getting to this "right place" is what I perceive to be the basic struggle of every person's life.
In my novel memoir What Would I Say Today If I Were To Die Tomorrow? I introduced Bishop Spong's book A New Christianity for a New Age to May Tyler, a good Christian widow who had outgrown her theistic Christian God but could not leave her Church for another spiritual path.
I wanted to give May Tyler the opportunity to shift her perspective on life and open her up to a much grander view on the spiritual life than her Christian faith would allow her to have; and, happily, with Spong's book she found it.
The point I wanted to make, which Bishop Spong also makes in his book A New Christianity for a New Age, is that there are many spiritual paths to God, not just the religion of Christianity; and only a stubborn fool would contend otherwise. Unfortunately, sparks fly when two belief systems clash - as the tragedy of September 11, 2001 sadly proved when the extremist Islamic faith of Osama Bin Laden clashed with our open democratic western spiritual values.
My hope then in writing On the Wings of Habitat is to show that despite which spiritual path one is on, we are all destined to find God eventually; and if sparks do fly when my narrator's personal beliefs clash with someone else's, it only means one thing: that we all have our own individual point of view. On the Wings of Habitat then is my literary perspective on the spiritual life and man's most noble virtue as it is expressed through the generous giving of one's time, energy, and skills to build Habitat homes for hard-working, decent people who would like a hand up, not a hand-out.
Orest Stocco
April 19, 2002
Nipigon, Ont., Canada

Catalogue Information