male-dominated world of the rural South. Look out, because her comes Jessie Mitchell Blackshear and her pale but equally dangerous double, Cousin Claire. Their macabre machinations will entertain and amaze you-if they don't swallow you whole! In these two darkly comic episodes, award-winning novelist Raymond Andrews paints the portraits of two very different black women whose means and modes of manipulation are mirror-opposites of each other, but whose motivations are thought-provokingly similar. The results-and their impact on those around them-are equally profound. The indomitable Jessie pursues her desires like a force of nature, a veritable tornado of love, lust, and loyalty, while the sweet-smiling Cousin Claire takes the low-keyed, subtle approach. Both women are powers to be reckoned with as they blindly pursue their goals. Enter the humorous, sad, and sexy worlds of Jessie and Claire, and along the way, meet a host of other colorful characters-"pale, shy, sweet Reenie," wandering Jesus, the daughter of GAL!, doomed Candy Man, ever-winking"Pig," TV-addicted Lizzie Lee Lester . . . all vividly presented in the rambunctious and rollicking prose of a master storyteller and inspired seer into human nature. Blending the sensibilities of Flannery O'Connor and Zora Neale Hurston, Raymond Andrews has created another work that is uniquely, and wonderfully, his own.

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