Jessie in the Smokies: The Spirit of Jesus in the Flesh of a Woman

Imagine Jesus as a woman in today's America. What would she look like and how would she behave? What kind of miracles would she perform? How would she provoke cruel men to brutally murder her? And to whom would she appear after death? This beautiful novel about a beautiful woman is set primarily in the mountain country around Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where Jessie earns her living as an artist. She and her adopted stray, a German shepherd she calls Columbo because he has a bad eye, are familiar sights on the roads and byways of this lovely territory-until she offends the conservative religionists by painting a series of famous women in religion, including Rosa Parks, whose portrait waves a red flag in front of diehard segregationists. Like Jesus of old, Jessie has her disciples too, women named Roxie, Phyllis, and Joan, who love her and would follow her almost anywhere.