Under the tutelage of Lee Pefley, Reuben learned what must be done. And when the time came, he left Alabama and took up the task of conquering the world, or at least the Occidental share of it. This novel is a chronicling of Reuben's necessary, great, and terrible deeds. The unforgettable character of Lee Pefley embodies a paradox-that some of those who seem by today's standards to be the most acerbic, the most misanthropic, the most 'irrelevant' and 'out of touch' may secretly be the greatest idealists of all. Derek Turner The Quarterly Review"