The Bible Salesman: A Novel (Paperback)

In this rollicking, rambling road novel of the post-WWII South, Preston Clearwater, a dead ringer for Clark Gable, steals cars and passes himself off as an undercover FBI agent. His mark is naïve 20-year-old Bible salesman Henry Dampier, whom Preston convinces to drive the cars to various paint shops (telling Henry that they have infiltrated a car-theft ring), while Preston follows in his own legally registered Chrysler. Preston undertakes more audacious forms of crime, while earnest Henry has a reunion with his fundamentalist family, listens to his cousin's scheme to market a new ad gimmick (called the bumper sticker), falls in love with roadside fruit-stand proprietor Marlene Greene and even manages to sell a few Bibles along the way. The hitch is his involvement with Preston: Henry will have to get wise to preserve all he has gained. Too many flashbacks to Henry's Baptist roots slow him down on the way to the novel's suspenseful climax and moving epilogue, but the result is one of the better takes on Southern Bible salesman buddy stories since Moses Pray and Addie Pray of Paper Moon. (Aug.)
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"As much as the crime story takes center stage here, it's in these extended flashbacks to Dampier's history that Edgerton shows some of his best writing: quick, nostalgic glimpses of a lost era, told mainly from a child's wide-eyed perspective-but infused with a master storyteller's understanding of the adult world as well.... Warm and winning." (Raleigh Metro Magazine )

"Edgerton is a master of not only describing small-town life, but also of making the reader long for it...Edgerton has great affection for his characters, and while he makes us laugh at their eccentricities, he also provides his readers with enough substance and vulnerability to fall in love with them....one great joy ride." (The News & Observer (Raleigh) )

"Clyde Edgerton's funniest in years." (Star News Online (Wilmington) )

"In this comedic novel, Edgerton, the author of seven best sellers, gives us a satisfying twist on the coming-of-age tale." (Library Journal )

"The influences of Mark Twain and James Thurber color The Bible Salesman...With intoxicating Southern-fried humor that's both warm and biting, Edgerton's latest is a breezy crowd-pleaser that will certainly expand his already large and loyal readership." (Western North Carolina Magazine )

"A breezy and sometimes humorous yarn." (The Wall Street Journal )

"Achingly poignant and ripsnortingly funny...The Bible Salesman is so sweet and funny that its darker themes of death, abandonment, existential uncertainty and the impermanence of human relations sneak up quietly on the reader." (The News & Observer )

"Hilarious...beyond the violence and beyond the laugh-out-loud humor, this story of a boy who becomes a man is, in Edgerton's hands, a true tale of redemption. It's not a spoiler to say that, by novel's end, Henry is indeed saved, though not by any illusions fed to him in Sunday School." (Nashville Scene )

"If you've ever read any of Clyde Edgerton's wonderful books, you know the characters rule supreme. The same remains true of his newest novel, The Bible Salesman... The character you'll remember most is a recently passed-away cat named Bunny." (Southern Living )

"Clyde Edgerton's storytelling is sublime....The Bible Salesman is a deeply satisfying novel, and great fun." (The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) )

"Edgerton mines the orthodoxy of his youth in rural North Carolina to find humor in an awkward young man wrestling with the temptations." (The Roanoke Times )

"An escapist romp at heart, perfect for a lazy summer's afternoon." (O Magazine )

"There are immense pleasures in the tales patched together in "The Bible Salesman" - tales that could have been spun on the front porch of a late summer North Carolina night." (The Washington Post )

"A rollicking, rambling road novel...one of the better takes on the Southern bible salesman buddy stories since Moses Prey and Addie Prey in Paper Moon." (Publishers Weekly )

"The Bible Salesman skillfully employs all the devices its author has honed over the years-a fine ear for dialogue, a love for the South and its people, and a gently modulated wit-to produce another winner." (Booklist )

"Hilarious. . . The Bible Salesman combines the sweet and funny stories of growing up in the South with the humorous and frightening adventures of a life of crime." (Associated Press )

"Irresistible...Edgerton is a master of comic timing, and The Bible Salesman is a font of wildly creative comedy." (Richmond Times Dispatch )