A novel of the sour end of an American dream in the Deep South tradition. Things were destined to career out of hand once John Girlie let the mysterious woman, kneeling by a graveside, become his obsession. There would be obvious pressures on any man called Girlie and Louisiana football hero John Girle had his share of them. Although John quit football and eschewed fame for home-town obscurity after university, he did not abandon his already once-abandoned mother. But this act of loyalty was no simple matter - especially after he had seen the melancholy figure of Emma Groves amidst tupelo trees in the graveyard where his friend Charley sniffed cocaine and dug artistic graves. The chances of that spooky woman Emma being welcomed into John's household were slim now that his mother had only one last Girlie to hang on to. This story of love and death is John Ed Bradley's first novel.