Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock

Love, vengeance and murder are mere points of departure for this colorful, dizzying tale of politics, religion, marriage, loyalty, survival, self-invention, and storytelling set in the Arkansas of the early 1980s. With a distinctive mix of humor, insight and metafictional razzmatazz, Butler ( Jujitsu for Christ ; Nightshade ) portrays the lives of Charles Morrison, a super-rich attorney and scion of one of Little Rock's foremost families, and his wife, Lianne, an emotionally scarred former Miss Little Rock and retired TV news personality. Outspoken champions of liberal causes, the handsome and wealthy Morrisons rankle some of the city's less glamorous, more old-fashioned types. Still, no one can foresee the violence that will ensue. Narrated by the Holy Ghost (``Talk about your omniscient narrators''), who likes to be called Hog and who periodically editorializes in a quirky dialect, Butler's concoction bubbles over with sassy profundities and structural ironies. The author himself appears, as a speaker at Lianne's book club dinner, and comments, ``I don't think the author belongs in his own stories.'' These games, though at times self-indulgent, frame a virtuoso conventional narrative. Butler masterfully evokes Arkansas and the times, explicating the subtleties of his characters' relationships with stunning authenticity. (Apr.)