A Late Flooding Thaw by Gary Guinn

Full disclosure: I know this book's author. He was a favorite professor, he buys our records, and he read a sonnet in our wedding (all we got him as a gift was Moby Grape CD. Doesn't seem right in hindsight). Anyway, having heard chapter excepts over the years, I was excited to finally read the novel when it was published a few weeks back. I was not disappointed.

In fact, I was surprised to find halfway through the book that I was no longer reading "Dr. Guinn's novel," but a really great book whose authorship no longer mattered to me.

A Late Flooding Thaw is the story of Walter and Emma Bass. Walter is a sort of Jewel Bundren, if he were able to achieve escape velocity from his family. Emma, his wife, shares a certain religous ecstasy with Hazel Motes. And no matter what Randy Zurcher or the author himself may say, I think the owl in the last chapter has to be the Holy Spirit.

Save $10 and order it directly from the publisher here. Or buy it from Amazon.com. Or by it from Wordsworth in Little Rock, where Gary Guinn will be signing books on August 11th.