“I am an uneasy man, severe with myself, like all solitaries.” — Blaise Cendrars David J. MacKinnon’s “A Voluntary Crucifixion” is a book about memory and the elusive task of capturing in prose the people, places, and events that have gone into making an eventful life. MacKinnon is a lawyer qualified in both common law and the French civil code, a Sorbonne graduate in history cum laude, has translated for the international court at the Hague, and is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, “Leper Tango” and “The Eel.” In “A Voluntary Crucifixion,” MacKinnon’s acerbic wit cuts into the absurdities of modern life. The book opens with the author, en famille, waiting frustratedly at the airport in Reykjavik. He asks his son, “How do I look?” His son responds, “You look gaunt and ghoulish.” David, the proud father, comments, “Ah, salve for my wounds. My offspring knows the words …