India, April 18 -- Charles Patterson's recently published novel, In Dante's Footsteps: My Journey to Hell: A Modern Divine Comedy , unfolds at two levels. At one, it is a set of intertwined narratives about the life of a young man, Thomas Aaron Reed III, who becomes a priest, leaves priesthood, journeys to Hell and returns. At another, it is an exploration of human conduct, values, emotions and aspects of morality.
The narratives unfold, smoothly and elegantly, around several themes. One of them is Thomas's relationship with his parents and another with Father Edward Tyler, who taught him Latin in school and accounted for his deep and abiding interest in Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy , became his adviser and conveyed to him the invit...