Mingling With Beans

In an often humorous, sometimes serious tale -- a coming-of-age story set mainly in the 1950s melded with a contemporary end-of-age story -- Andrew Johnson Golem grapples with several problematic issues; puberty, life's disappointments, race, aging, and death. His approach, quite often, is outlandish: He talks with dead people, both his wife and Ernest Hemingway; he shoots a pellet gun to flake the black surface off his bigoted neighbor's lawn jockey; and, when his grandson needs money for an organ transplant, he goes to Atlantic City to "knock over a casino" by counting cards at blackjack. Accompanied by offbeat characters -- including a reality-challenged exhibitionist who believes himself to be Kriss Kringle and who prophesies Christ's return -- Golem is on a journey to rediscover his soul. Throughout, a small mystery hovers -- the source and meaning of the recurring phrase, "I'd rather die than mingle with the beans."