The most unusual review of one of my books I’ve ever seen

Lost in Translation:

A remarkable book review of my book, The Godless Delusion: A Catholic Challenge to Modern Atheism (co-authored with Ken Hensley), popped up this morning on my Google Blog Search app.

I think I get the gist of what the reviewer is saying, though I cannot be entirely sure. The review is in English, sort of, though it reads as if it were washed and rinsed through an online translator program. Maybe it was first written in Slovak or Hindi and then translated into Finnish and then translated into English. I can’t tell. But I am pretty sure it’s an all around positive review, for which I am grateful in any language.

The review is of “Delirium Without God,” which I find to be an amusing and entirely apt rendering of what the book’s title, “The Godless Delusion,” connotes.

Among the many unique and remarkable phrases contained in this review, I have learned some new verbs, such as the picturesque “booty up,”  adjectives such as “abaft,” and nouns such as a “blazon of altercation.” I quite like that last one. And there is also this complimentary description of me, which I find interesting:

I acquisition this is one of Patrick Madrid’s abundant assets. He has become one of my admired apologists for the the Catholic faith. He does not appear out all pumped up, attractive for a fight. He starts with simple honest questions and lets logic, understanding, and animal acquaintance backpack the altercation forward. 

I must confess that it honestly has never occurred to me to implement that old art-of-war tactic of engaging in “animal acquaintance” in order to backpack an altercation forward.  I’m all about backpacking altercations forward, of course, but I just don’t think that animal acquaintance should have any role to play in that regard. But then, that’s just me.

My thanks to the reviewer for taking the time to booty up the agitation.