john brincefield

First-time novelist John Brincefield explores the family life of Sylvester P. Goode in a story punctuated with scriptural footnotes. Sylvester and his parents are all doing their own thing, dealing with their own issue. He lives with a single mom who is sold out to her church while his long-departed dad has found religion and is preaching in Africa. But despite his strict religious upbringing, Sylvester is known thoughout the neighborhood as a womanizer who was drinking his life away.
The product of an untimely birth and a destroyed marriage, Sylvester grows up with a mom working two jobs. His sudden death at the age of 27 sets in motion a time of introspection as his mother responds in shock. Reeling from the sight of her dying son, she is hospitalized and travels through time and space, far away from the reality she once knew. Through the prism of an out of body dream sequence, she relives the breakuup of her marriage caused by paternity questions.