Synopses & Reviews
Retired Virginia obstetrician John Livesey, recently widowed and discouraged by the world's crumbling morals, meets a man who has just performed an unnecessary cesarean section on his wife so as to be the one to deliver their child. Though initially appalled by the act, Livesey finds himself recalling it later when he learns a friend is dying of cancer, when his affair with a younger woman ends in disillusionment, and when, during an extended visit to his son and his family in Oregon, he realizes his daughter-in-law's unborn baby does not belong to her husband. Coming to admire the calm directness with which the man took matters of life and death into his own hands, Livesey begins to reconsider what he values and what he will protect.
Review
"A tightly woven story about the clash of Old Testament values and 20th century morality. Everett's terse prose and laconic style are reminiscent of that of Flannery O'Connor." Philadelphia Daily News
Review
"Well-written and faintly demented....Everett has the uncommon skill to work his story up into an ending of genuine though troublesome shock, even while broadcasting it all along." Los Angeles Times Book Review
About the Author
Percival Everett is a professor of English at the University of Southern California and the author of sixteen books, including American Desert, Erasure, and Glyph. He lives in Los Angeles.