Bobby Joe Burns, Gigsy and God: Stories from Earth

The fi rst anecdote recounted in this book relate to a deranged man, Bobby Joe Burns, who killed and mutilated his mother in 1958, under the infl uence of the Book of Revelation, terrifying the town including the author and his lifelong best friend. That friend, Gigsy, had his own mental diffi culties many years later and came face to face with the aging Burns. There are stories of the relationship of various people with their gods, often played out in the legal system where individual beliefs were parsed by experts, judges and parents, some well-meaning, some simply tyrannical. The effects of a biblical story on one man, of a whimsical Wiccan and devotees of cults, among other stories, make for an interesting mixture of how religion effects our daily lives. The stories are told in a wry, sometimes humorous manner, thought-provoking in the end.