FRIEND OF “MISTER GOD”

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33804, 29 March 1975, Page 10

FRIEND OF “MISTER GOD”

Mister God, This is Anna. By Fynn. Collins. 109 pp. N.Z. price $4.80. When five-year-old Anna was rescued from the gutter in a London slum by a large and gentle youth called Fynn, she revealed a simple faith in someone she called “Mister God.” For the rest of her short life with Fynn’s family she assumed the role of the personal friend and helper of “Mister God.”

This moving account of the relationship between Anna and her 19-year-old rescuer defies mundane explanation. But Vernon Sproxton, who has contributed the preface to this intriguing and often baffling book, knows Fynn personally, and makes it clear to sceptical readers that they are not being led along the path of whimsy. Fynn was a 19-year-old East End youth with an inquiring mind. Late one night, in the heart of the slums, he found a much-battered child. When asked about her parents, Anna’s reply was succinct — “she’a a cow and he’s a sod.” Thereafter they were never mentioned.

When Fynn took Anna home to his Irish mother, she immediately became on terms of warm friendship with her. But the child’s deepest affection was reserved for her rescuer. Anna’s obsession with “Mister God,” and his relationship with the world of

his creation communicated itself to Fynn, and the two held endless discussions on the nature of the Almighty and his intentions regarding the human race. There is something almost frightening about the depth of Anna’s metaphysical speculations, and her rejection of the ready-made doctrines of others. They are characteristically her own. When she heard a homely sermon embodying the phrase “the eyes of God,” Anna, in a stage whisper to Fynn, muttered “Mister God ain’t got no face.” Then she explained with a child’s remorseles logic that therefore God could not have eyes. “Mister God, This is Anna” is obviously a revelation of genuine experience. This is confirmed by some tantalisingly authentic conversations with the “Night People” and other East End worthies. And there seems nothing contrived in the account of Anna’j death in an accident at the age of eight. Anna’s last words, spoken with an almost airy confidence were: “Fynn, I bet Mister God lets me get into Heaven for this.” They sum up her philosophy and utter faith in the Divine purpose.

Papas has illustrated this fascinating book. His drawings are evocative of the child’s simple faith in her “Mister God.”