When Arlene Fleet heads up north for college, she makes three promises to God: She will stop fornicating with every boy who crosses her path; never tell another lie; and never, ever go back to the "fourth rack of hell," her hometown of Possett, Alabama. All she wants from Him is one little miracle: make sure the body is never found.
Crackling with humor, defiantly endearing characters, and plot twists that will astonish even the most jaded reader, gods in Alabama will send you careening from tears to laughter and back. Most of all, it brings a unique, rough-around-the-edges heroine to life and makes her a permanent part of your own.
When Arlene Fleet fled Possett, Alabama, she made a deal with God that she would cease fornicating and lying and would never return home if He would make sure that high school hero Jim Beverly's body was never found. Ten years later, feeling that God has not upheld His end of the bargain, she heads home to introduce her boyfriend, an African-American lawyer, to her redneck family. Jackson's debut novel is beautifully narrated by Catherine Taber, a newcomer to audiobooks who delivers a strong performance that draws the listener deeply into the story. Her unobtrusive reading indicates present or past by expressing youth or maturity with the timbre of her voice. D.T.H. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
