The land that drank the rain

the long version

Claytor Lewis Carson III flees his sleazy, dishonest, obessessive, and sexually driven lifestyle in southern California and withdraws into virtual isolation in the Cumberland Mountains of eastern Kentucky. He "seeks purification by living a simple life and by sweating from his system every ounce of modern society's excesses ... Only the threat to Vestil Skank -- a wild, lost unloved youth who longs to escape the killing meanness of Crow County -- is strong enough to crack Claytor's isolation and draw him back ... into a courageous and self-sacrificing humanity."--Jacket.