Purple Jesus
by Ron Cooper
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Pub Date Oct 15 2010 | Archive Date Sep 01 2012
Description
Purvis Driggers is a South Carolina Low Country loser. With little judgment and even less chance for a decent life beyond his parents' house, home town, and whatever part-time work he can scrounge up, he's sure he's figured a way out: rob an old man of the rumored millions hidden in his house. But all he finds is the old man dead and the money, if there was any, already gone.
Disappointed and defeated, Purvis is drawn to the sound of music across the creek. There, he discovers a beautiful woman in a white gown being baptized in the water. Surely Martha, beautiful Martha, will give Purvis the escape he imagines. With the Martha boat come to his rescue, Purvis decides, he'll never have to worry about drowning.
But Martha Umphlett is trapped, too. Married and just as quickly divorced, Martha's been condemned to return to the home she'd once escaped. Made to take care of her obese mother, and forced to participate in a baptism she has no interest in whatsoever, Martha, in her own way, is every bit as desperate as Purvis, but far more capable and a good deal more dangerous.
Their paths cross with that of Brother Andrew, a monk at a nearby monastery whose call more and more is not to God, but to nature, and more importantly, to somewhere else. He wanders the swamp to watch birds, practice archery, and meditate, but it becomes clearer and clearer to him that the answers he seeks are not to be found in his monastery, his vow of silence, or the life he's thus far known. But maybe the answer is in the girl he, too, sees being baptized across the creek. Perhaps Martha will make Andrew happy.
All three want and need something different in their lives, but the paths they'll take are neither clear nor pretty, and they will not end well.
Infatuated with Martha, and certain she's the answer to his dreams, Purvis sets out to do whatever is necessary to prove his love, all the while terrified that the FBI will pin the old man's murder on him. Is he demented, or just crazy with love? Does Martha care for Purvis, or will she simply exploit him? Is Brother Andrew straying too far toward both of them and too far away from his faith? And just what is necessary for Purvis to prove himself to Martha?
Told from the characters' alternate points of view, this darkly humorous story wends its way through a web of murder and dismemberment, a twisted love triangle, and a woodland monster known as the Hairy Man.
As funny as it is sad, as beautiful as it is ugly, as authentic as it is shocking, and as powerful as anything you'll ever read, Ron Cooper's Purple Jesus is a murder mystery, a love story, a religious allegory and, most importantly, a dark and comic descent into the lives and world views of three unbelievable and unforgettable characters.Advance Praise
"Edgar Allan Poe wrote that every word in a short story should contribute to the effect of the whole. Very few American short-story writers have met this standard, and even fewer novelists have managed the feat: perhaps Hemingway, maybe Marilynne Robinson, Roth in Portnoy's Complaint, Updike in Rabbit, Run. It's a rare thing, but Cooper keeps their company. Purple Jesus is so perfectly written, it's exhilarating to read. The publication of Purple Jesus is a literary event of the first magnitude."
-The Washington Post
"Purple Jesus is a novel that deserves a place on the bookshelf between O'Connor's Wise Blood and Crews's The Gospel Singer, but Ron Cooper has his own unique voice, and what a marvelous, darkly comic voice it is. He is an immensely talented writer."
-Ron Rash, 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist for Serena"Ron Cooper's Purple Jesus is a happy handful of a book. With characters as recognizable as they are eccentric, a storyline as inclusive as a revival tent, and a prose style that snaps like garters, it is one nifty read. Anyone who doesn't enjoy this novel just doesn't know how to have a good time."
-Fred Chappell, former longtime professor of English, University of North Carolina, and award-winning Novelist and poet (Prix de Meilleur des Livres Etrangers, the Bollingen Prize, and the T. S. Eliot Prize)
"Purple Jesus is one of those books you read in a single day. Purvis Driggers, the novel's hero-if that word remotely connects to this bizarre figure on the bottom layer of a world that defies description-stays in the head, and he won't go away. The writing is antic, smart, and often memorable. This is a fine novel."
-Jay Parini, acclaimed author of The Last Station"I have just finished reading Ron Cooper's new novel. I know that what a publisher typically wants a reviewer to do is assemble a fanfare of comparisons-to Lewis Nordan, to Walker Percy, or even to Faulkner. But the truth is that comparisons just aren't enough. Purple Jesus shows that Cooper has the ear of a poet engaged in the sport of finding exactly the right words. He has the wild-haired tendency of a philosopher to mix beliefs, ideas, possibilities, and humor as if he was whipping up a Sunday pot-luck supper casserole. And he combs and plumbs the memories of his childhood home like a shaman knitting together the culture of a tribe. Damn me if this isn't a fine book, a powerfully good yarn that makes you want to thrust pages under someone's nose and say, ‘Read this!'"
-Garrison Somers, Editor-in-Chief, The Blotter Magazine, Durham, NC
"The writing is poetic at times,
coarse in others. The author's background in philosophy and as a professor of
humanities is evident. Using his knowledge of the South Carolina Low Country,
he conveys to the reader language and nuances that help create the setting and
characters to an astonishing depth. The only detraction may be that this depth
is one which some readers may never reach. Light reading this is not. For those
of us who week out the unique, new voice in the wilderness of literature, I
recommend you check out Ron Cooper."
-The Biblio Blogazine
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781890862701 |
| PRICE | 21.95 |
| PAGES | 214 |
