Heathern
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
The year is 1998, and the nightmare is close at hand.
The world economy has gone into a mega-crash. Most of the population has been plunged into abject poverty. Anarchy and violence stalk the streets. All power is in the hands of Dryco, headed by paranoid tycoon Thatcher Dryden, and his monstrous wife, Susie.
But on the desperate streets of the Lower East Side miracles are happening. A Messiah seems to have risen from the people and is healing the sick, teaching children, raising the dead.
Dryco's New Projects Manager, Joanna, is sent to check him out. Thatcher's got a plan for world domination, and a genuine Messiah could be the key he's looking for. And even if he's fake, he may have his uses.
But soon, Joanna finds herself trapped in a crisis of conscience, between the relative security of a Dryco job and the dream of healing a sick world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the same surrealistic style of Ambient and Terraplaneok? , Womack's third novel takes place in an alternate America run by the Dryden Corporation (Dryco), whose owner, Thatcher Dryden, has engineered the assassinations of three presidents while searching for one who will remain under Dryden's thumb. Control of the country is also a problem, so when Dryden hears about Macaffrey, a teacher who works miracles, he decides to set up his own religion to be an opiate of the people. Not surprisingly, however, those who channel God's power aren't keen on obeying materialistic rulers. Womack thematically links this book with his previous novels through the use of ``postliterary'' futurespeak, and characters and plots that refuse to conform to conventional genres. While the book is initially slow going, patience is rewarded with a literate, well-rounded story, told from the viewpoint of Joanna, Dryden's mistress and Macaffrey's ardent disciple. (``Heathern,'' by the way, is a regional pronunciation of ``heathen,'' as in one who does not believe in the Messiah.)
