<P>This odd, transcendent and triumphant novel published in 2000 completes aquasi-autobiographical, radically philosophical series of fictions Howe began with First Marriage,published in 1972. Like Howe, Henny's life spans the tempestuous multi-racial world of hipsters andactivists in working-class Boston during the 60s and its subsequent fall-out.On the verge ofreligious conversion, Henny, the book's narrator, locks her husband McCool in a closet so that shemight talk better to God. Then she proceeds to make peace with the dead by telling their stories.Lewis, Henny's true love, is a wheelchair-bound black activist and political journalist whoseworking-class mother is jailed when the group's cache of explosives is found in her home. Thenthere's their wealthy friend Libby, who crosses the globe in search of enlightenment and spiritualpeace. Guiding these characters on their journey are figures as divergent as Nietzsche and Bambi,Marx and St. John of the Cross.As Christopher Martin writes in Rain Taxi, Henny's function as anarrator is to hoist the entire structure of the novel onto her brittle, uneven shoulders anddeliver all the embarrassing facts directly to us, her reader/God -- only then do we realize thefull breadth and beauty of the narrative Howe has surreptitiously constructed all along.Fanny Howeis the author of several works of fiction (most recently, Economics from Flood Editions) andcollections of poems, including One Crossed Out and Gone. She is the winner of the 2000 LenoreMarshall Award for her Selected Poems. Her first collection of essays, The Wedding Dress, waspublished by UC Press in the Fall of 2003. She lives in Massachusetts but remains Professor Emeritusat UCSD in the Department of Literature.</P>