Book Review: ‘Journey of the Spirit Man’ by George Mendoza

Title: The Journey of the Spirit Man

Author: George Mendoza

Publisher: Wise Tree Press

Publication Date: 2020

CONTENT WARNING: This book contains a scene where a murderer expresses antisemitic and homophobic views. This book also contains scenes depicting slavery and violence towards prisoners.

The Journey of the Spirit Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by author and artist George Mendoza. It combines a coming of age journey of self-discovery with elements of fantasy and magical realism.

Mendoza was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease as a teenager which caused significant sight loss. Undaunted he threw himself into a variety of different activities including running where he achieved several records. In the author’s bio he describes a serious hiking accident in 2011 where he was injured and left seeing visions and swirls of colours. Mendoza’s life experiences helped to inspire: The Journey of a Spirit Man.

Set in Las Cruces in New Mexico, college student and track and field star Michael Seymour has his whole future mapped out – until he learns that he has a degenerative disease that effects his limbs and joints, his girlfriend dumps him, and his best friend is murdered all on the same day. To escape the pain Michael runs into the desert. Having seen visions all his life Michael succumbs, enters a gateway, and is transported to a far off realm. To get home again he must travel between different lands to find the right path. Along the way Michael learns about himself and transforms into a better person in a journey of spiritual awakenment.

Michael travels to the cruel Colosseum-like Gehenna where all sins are violently punished. Escaping the city he joins a pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain and the Altar of the Cup of All Good Things which results in him accidentally being declared a prophet. Knowing he cannot live a lie, Michael leaves and finds himself in Paradisa where every dream comes true. Determined to get home, he continues on and enters an alternative version of Ancient Egypt where Michael must prove the type of person he truly wants to become before being allowed to reach his destination.

Spirit Man is strongly a coming of age story. At the beginning Michael is arrogant, egotistical and dismissive of the people around him. Throughout his journey his is presented with a series of extremes – extreme violence in Gehenna, extreme beliefs on the mountain, and extreme excess and abundance at Paradisa. All offer Michael ways in which he could live his life and impulses he could give into. Over the course the novel we see Michael mature and gain self-insight as he accepts the type of person he was and learns about the type of person he wants to be.

Starting in our world, the story crosses over into fantasy and fictional realms. I would also argue that it brings in elements of magical realism. The opening establishes that Michael has visions before ever entering the gateway, therefore implying that some form of magic exists in the real world. I’ve found that in many magical realism stories I’ve read there is often a lack of explanation for why things are happening paired with a similar lack of curiosity from the characters. These attributes can also be found in Spirit Man. The rules of this world are never truly established – why is there a gateway in the desert that only Michael can find? How can he move so quickly between landscapes that shouldn’t exist next to each other? And when Michael journeys down a river/waterfall and finds himself in Ancient Egypt there is only one line where he expresses mild surprise at this turn of events. While Michael is shocked by what he encounters within each location, the discovery of the locations themselves don’t faze him.

Now the argument can be made that, as this is a story of self-discovery, the focus is always inwards. Mendoza does not need to develop and explain any of the outward fantastical elements in the novel because they are simply tools to help Michael on his journey of understanding and betterment.

This is purely my personal preference but I am the type of reader who enjoys answers and world building. When a real world character encounters a fantastical element and only expresses a mild curiosity at most towards what is happening around them, I always find that very frustrating as I don’t believe it is how someone would react in real life.

While I have to conclude that The Journey of the Spirit Man is not the book for me, in part due to the amount of unanswered questions I had at the end, I can’t deny that Mendoza achieves what he set out to create in this novel. It is undeniably a story of self-discovery that allows the protagonist opportunities to grow and learn how to improve his life.

A free e-copy of ‘The Journey of the Spirit Man’ and the images used in this review were kindly provided by Catalyst Press. For more information check out their website. For more information about the author, check out George Mendoza’s website.

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