In Better Times: Seven Stories

When Paul Pope finds himself locked into an ongoing chain of events, he chances on an opportunity to extract himself from a complicated destiny he blames on poverty and a misspent youth. A period of enrichment, success, and recognition follows. Dark moments and even murder sidetrack him though. Along the way, Paul's life is impacted by the arrival of several unique personalities including a New Orleans mortician, Walter Beiderweil; an itinerant Texas preacher named Billy Bob Buckmaster; a retired Army General James Scrog; Albert Breaux, a newspaperman; Lisa Sun Ling, a fiery convenience store clerk; and, as one might expect, his twin brother John. We celebrate Paul's health, notoriety, and fame, but a late-night incident on a Big Easy golf course proves cathartic. Murder can be heart-stopping. Is it possible for a person to be murdered twice? Paul's struggles to keep his head above water in the face of his eminent destiny are fiercely challenging. They prove that, if nothing else, life may not be easy in the Big Easy.