Integrité

Gary Guinn 83 Morgan, whom he has accused of the murder. When Louis arrives at the jail, Morgan, who has just lifted the revolver from the sheriff‘s holster with the intent of shooting the sheriff and getting away, decides not to do so and shoots the refrigerator instead of the sheriff. This act becomes a prelude to Louis‘s confession, while Morgan believes that his own ―choice of life over death…had given Louis, and maybe the whole world, the rare gift of effective moral damage control‖ and that ―by this choice of life, Louis had been set free‖ (196).

In both of these scenes, the canaries and the jail shooting, the protean nature of reality is the catalyst for transformation. Louis assumes that the canaries are dead, so that the apparent ―resurrection‖ of the canaries leads directly to his change of heart, the undoing of his lie, and his forgiveness of Morgan. Then Morgan absurdly assumes that his decision not to shoot the sheriff, his choosing of life over death, has set Louis free and maybe changed the whole world. The novel will eventually close with Morgan and his adoptive mama, Aunt Lilly, a hoodoo woman with a crystal ball—which is always less than accurate—headed for Texas to start a new life.

The most dramatic character transformations come in two key chapters late in the book. Both are fully Nordanesque mixtures of comic irony and pathos.

The first is the transformation of Hydro himself into the dashing and handsome Ramon Fernandez (Hydro‘s real name, though nobody has ever called him by it).

The morning after Hydro drowns himself in the swamp, Mr. Raney has a vision of Hydro as a handsome, shimmery-looking stranger, who seems familiar and is ―wearing clothes like Mr. Raney had never seen before–tight black pants and a white frilly shirt and a black vest and shiny leather boots…. His eyes were black as death, and his face, pale as marble, he was handsome as a movie star‖ (202).

Mr. Raney finally recognizes Hydro, his head ―no longer enlarged…. He was a man of mystery. He was Ramon Fernandez‖ (205). A few pages later, the narrator tells us that the first thing Ramon Fernandez does when he gets to the other side is look up his mama, who had died giving birth to Hydro. And in a scene that is a comic masterpiece, Ramon finds his mama ―in a blues bar with a slender young man with pale hair and a British accent,‖ who turns out to be Jesus.

Ramon‘s mama says, ―Ramon, me and Jesus here, we‘s just friends, that‘s all.

Jesus owns this here bar. That‘s how come we can get Robert Johnson.‖ Jesus closes the scene by telling Ramon, ―It‘s always Happy Hour in Chez Jesus‖ (222).

The final transformations occur at Hydro‘s funeral. First, we see Louis and his father, Dr. McNaughton, sitting in the parking lot before going into the church, having their first honest conversation. They hold each other and sit and cry together. And then, most dramatically, a few minutes later in the funeral service the dead themselves are transformed. As Preacher Roe reads the beautiful promises about resurrection from the service for the Burial of the Dead, Louis McNaughton is given a vision. He sees all the dead of the novel sitting with Hydro‘s daddy, Mr. Raney, off to one side of the altar: Pap Mecklin, ―wearing green aviator sunglasses…who had died at St. Louis‖, the two lovely children shot by Hydro, Louis‘s grandfather ―who had died long ago,‖ Mrs. Raney ―dead for so long now,‖ and even Hydro himself as the resplendent Ramon Fernandez (258). Preacher Roe reads, ―Behold I show you a mystery. We shall not sleep,