Modern Baptists By James Wilcox

Critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful, James Wilcox is the kind of writer other writers can afford to rave about. Originally published in 1983, his debut, Modern Baptists, was hailed an instant classic by the likes of Harold Bloom and Anne Tyler.

The first of a series of comic satires set in Tula Springs, Louisiana, the novel introduces Mr Bobby Pickens, a 41-year-old bachelor in search of a love life. We follow Bobby through a chain of disastrous social faux pas, as he makes the mistake of allowing his reprobate brother FX, a drug-dealing ex-con, to move into his home. A novel as charmingly retro as the landscape it describes.