Welcome
to WP
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The
novelist is less like a prophet than he is like the canary that coal
miners used to take down into the shaft to test the air. When the canary
gets unhappy, utters plaintive cries, and collapses, it may be time for
the miners to surface and think things over.
—Walker
Percy
The
Dealmaker
by Edward
Francisco
Viola Sykes
is an unlikely heroine. Her son Harold, a shell-shocked veteran of
World War II, has been murdered for threatening to expose key
figures
in a bootlegging and political conspiracy. Poorly educated and
with few resources, Viola must match wits with the suspected
culprit, Loather Parrish, a notorious political boss whose
intelligence is equaled only by his capacity for evil. In her
efforts at retribution, Viola struggles to prevent her daughter
from becoming another pawn in Loather Parris's political
machinations. To secure their freedom, Viola pursues a daring
tactic: she commits herself to an infamous mental hospital. more
on this book
“With The
Dealmaker, a fine poet becomes a knowing, summoning novelist.
Edward Francisco's story gets at the heart of good and evil.
His lyrically compelling narrative brings us close to willful
greed and determined courage. The result is a saga that will
give readers moral pause: much to consider as well as to
enjoy.”
—Pulitzer Prizewinner Robert Coles
Available
in cloth September 2002
280 pages/ 5 x 9"
“Edward
Francisco's poems, deeply moving, rooted in love of family,
memory-haunting in their evocations, are written by a master of
language. His opening poem is about the suicide of his mother, his
closing poem about his love for his wife. In the pages between are
fine poems of other loves and affiliations written by a person who
has lived life fully, taken its challenges, lost and won as all
people do, and yet remains fast in his belief that goodness may be
found in belief and devotion.” more on
this book —George Scarbrough, Pulitzer nominee for Invitation to
Kim
paper /
108 pages / 5.5 x 8.5"
Special: Only $10.00 with a purchase of The Dealmaker!
“Superbly
presented. As a collective portrait this book allows its subjects
to reveal themselves with a directness and an immediacy that
renders social analysis of their situation of their situation
almost superfluous.”
—The New Republic
“An
eloquent picture of the hard but productive and fulfilling lives
of these rural people. Coles and photographer Alex Harris were
able to break through the reticence of these people and have
captured the essence of their lives.”
—San
Francisco Examiner and Chronicle
