Greeted as a masterpiece when it was first published in 1966, is the quirky, impressionistic, and breathtakingly original story of an ordinary community galvanized by the presence of an extraordinary man. Set in a small ...Greeted as a masterpiece when it was first published in 1966, is the quirky, impressionistic, and breathtakingly original story of an ordinary community galvanized by the presence of an extraordinary man. Set in a small ohio town in the 1890s, it chronicles - through the voices of various participants and observers - the confrontation between brackett omensetter, a man of preternatural goodness, and the reverend jethro furber, a preacher crazed with a propensity for violent thoughts.