The Abiding Gospel of Claude Dee Moran, Jr.

Claude Dee is a Scripture-quoting ex-con whose attempts to put his prison education to use, first as revivalist preacher and later, with ingeniously contrived credentials, as sheriff, become comic disasters. In league with a gullible buddy and a freckle-faced, foul-mouthed young girl named Henry, Claude Dee survives tent collapses, sexually demanding women and the vagaries of law enforcement in rural America. Claude Dee's kind heart and a daffy woman are the cause of his return to prison, a 10-year stint for unsheriff-like obstruction of law. Former college professor Farris (Ramey mines Faulkner territory for comic effect, capturing the antic behavior of colorful backwoods denizens in their earthy vernacular and unabashed grittiness. Author tour. (June)