The Jesus Cow

Humorist Michael Perry (Coop) makes a foray into fiction with The Jesus Cow, a novel about a small Midwest community that is transformed in profound and hilarious ways by a bull calf born in a barn on Christmas Eve.

Perry sets the story in Swivel, Wis.--population exaggerated at 562--only visible from the interstate by a long-stemmed, halogen-lit Kwik Pump gasoline sign whose "logo glows against the sky." He focuses on resident Harley Jackson, who lives in the house where he grew up, on 15 acres of deteriorating farmland. When his prized cow, Tina Turner, delivers a bull calf bearing the image of Jesus Christ on its black-and-white patchwork hide, Harley, a born-again believer, doesn't drop to his knees. Instead, he says, "Well, that's trouble."

Whether the calf was marked by God or not, Harley doesn't want anything to disturb his manageable, unassuming life. But when the Jesus calf escapes from the barn, the animal's image goes viral. Harley's upper Midwest farm soon becomes an international spiritual destination--a circus that sends the town residents into a tizzy. 

As in Truck: A Love Story and Visiting Tom, Perry once again delivers his own brand of outlandishness through rich, endearing characterizations of quirky small-town folks, and how their zany foibles and flaws mask underlying disappointments, secrets and longings. By deploying humor in depicting the often painful truths and absurdities of life, Perry successfully makes much larger statements about society and the human condition.

The Jesus Cow: A Novel by Michael Perry

Harper, $25.99 Hardcover, 9780062289919, 304 pp

Publication Date: May 19, 2015

To order via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Note: This review is a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (5/26/15), click HERE

This review was also featured (in a longer form) on Shelf Awareness: Book Trade (5/11/15). To read the longer review click HERE

The Dog Year

Beneath the surface of Luscious "Lucy" Peterman's life as a well-respected Elmwood, Wisconsin breast surgeon is a woman with a shattered psyche. Eight months before, Lucy lost her loving husband and her unborn child in a single afternoon. Ever since, Lucy has tried to bury herself in work. But there's a problem. Lucy has developed an inexplicable urge to pilfer hospital supplies such as bandages, tape, IV tubing and stockpile them in the bedroom she once shared with her husband. When the powers-that-be at the hospital catch Lucy in the act of stealing, she is given an ultimatum: go for psychological counseling or forfeit her medical license. Under protest, she chooses the former, soon understanding that the root of her addiction stems from the realization that if she had such provisions with her on the day her life forever changed, Lucy might've been able to alter her fate.

The bond Lucy shares with her brother deepens as she undergoes treatment for her kleptomania and is propelled on a journey that connects her with a concerned psychoanalyst; an anorexic stranger with deep-seated emotional issues of her own, who might have friend potential; quirky attendees at a local 12-Step, AA meeting; and a snarky cop who once knew Lucy in high school. Along the way, a stray dog unexpectedly wins Lucy's affections and helps soothe her languishing grief.

Engrossing characterizations and unexpected complications permeate The Dog Year by Ann Garvin (On Maggie's Watch), a novel that addresses serious issues of loss and self-actualization in a very entertaining way.

The Dog Year by Ann Garvin

Berkley Trade,  $15.00 paper, 9780425269251 , 336 pp

Publication Date: June 3, 2014

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Note: This review is a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (6/6/14), click HERE