A Perverse Romance is a satirical tale of artist Hephzibah Brown who is persuaded by Cedric the Imp of Perversity to follow him to the recently independent Ghana, following with the temptation that they will compose a tourist book for him to write and for her to illustrate. She does follow, but knowing his unreliability, she changes it to a book about tourists--one a pragmatist and the other an idealist. And more than this, her tourist will be a woman. The novel becomes an examination of real life being a form of transience.

How I use satire: Satire is the uncomfortable life of...