Holy Smoke

From Publishers Weekly
Sisters Anna and Jane Campion (the Australian directors responsible for such films as Loaded and The Piano) have collaborated on this intriguing though rambling first novel. Twenty-year-old Ruth Baron is dragged back from India, where she has joined a bizarre cult, to her parent's home outside of Sydney. Once there, her family forces her to undergo an intensive "exiting" process meant to de-program her from the insidious influence of the cult's leader, Chidaatma Baba. The expert recruited for the job is P.J. (John) Waters, a world-weary fellow in his mid-50s who flies in from New York and secludes himself with the rebellious young woman for the three-day intensive treatment. At first, they circle each other suspiciously; John is aggressive, and Ruth fights him every step of the way. Soon, distrust gives way to a dangerous and undeniable mutual passion. Other characters in this heaving, breathless novelARuth's vague, teary mother, older brothers and bumbling sister-in-lawAseem to function as clueless comic foils for the burgeoning intensity between Ruth and John. The authors successfully demonstrate the seductive pull of cults and are at their best when transforming Ruth's need for spiritual guidance into her psychosexual delirium. The narrative, told from the alternating points of view of John and Ruth, has a hazy, druggy quality, which is ambiguous and confusing. The fact that this tale is the book version of an upcoming film starring Harvey Keitel and Kate Winslet contributes to the reader's likely awareness that thenovel is a sketchy, early version of its more fitting cinematic manifestation. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Boundaries blur in this novel by the sisters Campion. Both are writers and directors, with Jane the better known for her film The Piano (1993). Their collaboration is being published under the new imprint of Miramax Books in anticipation of the release of the movie version starting Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel, and because this entertaining if facile tale is the basis for a screenplay, its style is overtly camera-ready. Ruth, the heroine, is a young and feisty Australian who came under the influence of an unscrupulous guru while traveling in India. Her panicked family hires a cult specialist from New York, P. J. Waters, to bring her to her senses. Ruth and P. J. are sequestered in a small hut on the sunbaked outback, where Ruth easily deflects P. J.'s lame strategies, and instigates a far more intimate form of therapy. The dialogue is amusing and the setting dramatic, but the writing is uneven, and the story, concocted purely for its potential cinematic eroticism, is kitschy. Donna Seaman

From Kirkus Reviews
A dual debut for filmmaker Campion and her sister Anna, who offer an account of a very twisted love/hate affair that transpires between a kidnaped cult member and her deprogrammer. Exit counselors, something of a cross between psychotherapists and secret agents, specialize in forcibly removing people from cults and reorienting them to the real world. P.J. Waters is one of the best of the breed. A New Yorker, P.J. is called halfway across the globe to Australia to assist in the case of Ruth Baron, a bright girl from New South Wales who decided to take a year off from her university studies to travel through India with some friends and ended up joining a cult headed by the charlatan guru Chidaatma Baba. Babas brand of asceticism has a Hindu scent but is basically his own concoction, revolving in large part on unthinking subservience to him. By the time Ruths family finds out where shes ended up, shes set to be initiated in two weeks. With no time to be lost, Ruths mother and brother manage to kidnap her and bring her home to Australia, but its up to P.J. to convince her not to returnor to kill herself. This he accomplishes through intensive interrogations conducted in a safe house over a period of days leading to weeks. As usual, P.J. succeeds, but this time something out of the ordinary happens: he and Ruth develop an erotic obsession with each other. P.J. is a married man, Ruth is barely in her 20's. An affair would only harm her and destroy himor would it? Two people who have dedicated most of their lives to a search for meaning are not likely to be constrained by conventions, but they cannot be exempt from them either. Can they help each other out? The premise and plot are very old-hat, but the Campion sisters narration is fresh and deft enough to breathe life into them: Worth a look. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


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