Lester Lies Down

James Ladd Thomas

Publication date: October, 2022
Genre: Literary Fiction
Paperback: ISBN: 978-618-86002-4-9
eBook: ISBN: 978-618-86002-5-6

★★★★★ “hilarious and heartbreaking... catches the joys and pains of Southern life in bright colors.” John Calvin Hughes, author of The Lost Gospel of Darnell Rabren 

Lester Gordon is an odd man on the lower end of the autism spectrum.

He falls for his next-door neighbor. He marries his next-door neighbor. He has three children with his next-door neighbor. What a dream.

Then she dies from cancer, leaving him with three children under the age of twelve. So, he sells his family’s car wash to become a hospice nurse, just like the one who comforted his wife and family. Everything is great until he attends patients by himself. What a terrible mistake.

Meanwhile, one of his sons is interested in drawing nude women and being a bookie for the neighborhood kids. An old friend shows up looking to escape a couple of goons running after the money she stole from an Oregon marijuana farm. And white dogs keep showing up. 

He’s full of anxiety and fear and making stuff up as he goes.

Humorous and certainly a bit absurd, Lester Lies Down explores cultural justice in the Deep South, as well as mortality, the value of love, and the need for compassion for people who are different.