cover image When Bobby Kennedy Was Moving

When Bobby Kennedy Was Moving

Robert Gordon. Black Heron Press, $20.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-930773-27-4

Although he seems like the other guys at the Jake Fuller Moving Company, something is different about Bobby Kennedy, the affable loner who bears a curious resemblance to the slain public servant of the same name. Through miracles, including levitating heavy furniture and changing water into beer, Bobby convinces his co-workers that he is indeed the second coming of the ``first brother.'' However, the gods who have returned Bobby to earth ruled that while he can feed hungry prisoners and read people's thoughts, he is forbidden to touch the world of those he left behind. When he defies this by gunning for a mobster he believes killed his brother Jack, the gods punish him in a familiar fashion by allowing earthly forces to decide his fate. Bobby is imprisoned and must relive the tragedies of Life One, while suffering the indignities of Life Two. Eventually, the gods forgive Bobby. But before his ascension, he returns to the world long enough to spread his own slightly fatalistic take on the gospel. An interesting blend of messianic novel and Kennedy tell-all, Gordon's debut can entertain and provoke, but it is somewhat undermined by its heavy-handed use of biblical imagery. (Oct . )