In Silas House's latest, a road trip becomes a spiritual pilgrimage

In a series of small, poignant novels -- "Clay's Quilt," "A Parchment of Leaves" and "The Coal Tattoo" -- Kentucky native Silas House created unforgettable images of the modern Appalachians.

His latest, "Southernmost," finds him stretching out a bit, with a plot that runs from Nashville to Key West, Fla. Beyond that, the book steers into deeper waters, from questions of love and mercy to the very nature of God.

House's protagonist, Asher, is a Pentecostal preacher in middle Tennessee. As the story opens, the Cumberland River is flooding and Asher is having to evacuate his mother-in-law, Zelda, whose cabin is about to be overwashed.

Two men -- a Nashville songwriter and his roommate -- help Asher find his 9-year-old boy, Justin, who's run off to find the family's missing dog. The two, who've lost their own house, soon help Asher rescue one of the deacons from his church and the deacon's young daughter.

It soon becomes apparent that the duo are not just good buddies; the men are lovers and, now that the Supreme Court has overturned laws against same-sex marriage, they ask Asher to perform their marriage. A lot of the folks in Asher's congregation think the floods are God's vengeance for that ruling, so Asher declines.

He has no objection, though, when the couple starts attending Asher's Sunday services. A lot of the church people do, though -- including the deacon they rescued and Asher's own wife, a preacher's daughter with a strong judgmental streak. (She didn't even want to let the two men in her house to pick up some dry clothes after they were drenched.)

Asher quotes some Bible verses about hospitality to a stranger, but it isn't enough. In short, fast order, Asher is expelled from his pulpit and his marriage breaks up. A video of Asher's last sermon goes viral -- Asher doesn't even know what that means -- and soon, he's a media star against his will. (House isn't really a satirist, but his sketch of social media is especially acrid.)

Lydia, his soon-to-be-ex-wife, wants to limit Asher's access to Justin, on the grounds that he's "unstable" and not a good influence. She wants to put Justin -- who's being bullied at school -- into therapy because he seems to feel things too much, to be too empathetic. Asher's not sure that quality is a bad thing. When custody hearings go south, Asher abruptly kidnaps his son and heads for Key West, the southernmost point in the continental United States.

Why Key West? Because Asher is looking for his older brother Luke, who was driven from the family years ago for coming out. He has no address, but periodically, he's received unsigned postcards from Key West with cryptic messages, which he's sure came from Luke. Now, how to find him without getting caught?

In the second half of the novel, Asher encounters a cast of flamboyant Key West characters, and comes to rethink many of his bedrock assumptions.

Meanwhile, in chapters headed "The Everything," we enter into Justin's head. A thoughtful boy who seems more like a little old man than a 9-year-old, Justin is rethinking his own view of God, developing into a precocious pantheist.

In lesser hands, this material could turn didactic, but House is too humane for that. He writes much like fellow Kentuckian Robert Penn Warren, in lyric prose that seems on the verge of poetry. For example:

"The breeze from the Atlantic laces through the palm fronds. The plants breathe in the darkness, moving closer to the cottages in the nighttime, easing their vines and tendrils and green points toward the walls of the houses. The pool water is still in its concrete rectangle."

"Southernmost" is a novel with a heart, but it also makes readers think.

Reporter Ben Steelman can be reached at 910-343-2208 or Ben.Steelman@StarNewsOnline.com.

"Southernmost"

By Silas House

Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, $26.95