The Brunist Day of Wrath
Cover of the 1st edition
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| Author | Robert Coover |
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| Cover artist | Alessandro Calzolaro |
| Language | English |
| Published | 2014 (Dzanc Books) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 1005 |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | The Origin of the Brunists |
The Brunist Day of Wrath is Robert Coover's tenth novel. It is a sequel to The Origin of the Brunists, which told the story of Giovanni Bruno, the lone survivor of a mine disaster that killed 97 of his co-workers, and the first several months of the apocalyptic cult that formed around him, ending in their disastrous scattering. The Brunist Day of Wrath is set five years later, as the cult returns to West Condon.
Coover had the idea for the sequel while writing The Origin of the Brunists, and has stated that "it might be said that all my writing has been written in Wrath’s shadow." He took notes over the years, but concentrated on his other writings, until the 2000 election of Bush and the power of the religious right in American politics inspired him to take the sequel much more seriously.
Excerpts have appeared in Conjunctions, Harper's, Western Humanities Review, Kenyon Review, Five Dials, FlashPoint, and Golden Handcuffs Review.
In the five years since the events of The Origin of the Brunists, the religion has grown, except in West Condon. Justin Miller has left town, taking a job with network TV. Abner Baxter has also left town, openly preaching Brunist. Eleanor Norton has written a successful book on Domiron and the Brunists. The teenage orphan Colin Meredith, after his rescue from the Brunists, was committed to the same mental hospital with Giovanni Bruno. Clara Collins, widow of Ely, has married Ben Wosznik.
The mine entrance area, known as the "Mount of Redemption" to the Brunists, has been idle. The Reverend Wesley Edwards' Presbyterian church sold off their long unused camp grounds to local mine boss John P. Suggs, not knowing he was a Brunist sympathizer. Edwards' wife Debra makes Colin's redemption her great project, wrecking her marriage.
Colin had seen Bruno being wheeled out of the institute after surgery, and reports he is dead.
On July 7, the Reverend Joshua Jehoshaphat Jenkins, fresh out of Presbyterian seminary, is riding a bus to his first ministrial appointment. Expected to be met by Ted Cavanaugh, the town banker, at the bus station, he finds no one waiting and no message for him, so he leaves his stuff at the station and goes exploring West Condon on his own.
Along the way, a driver for a lost army convoy asks Jenkins for directions to the high school, and when he shows him the only map he has, the driver assumes it was meant as a gift and takes it and leaves. Jenkins finds his church, and since it is open, enters. He finds Jesus at the pulpit waiting for him. They talk a bit, then a woman enters, similarly garbed as Jesus, tells him "those awful people are marching up that hill again," with guns, and recommends they hide in the basement. Jesus decides to proceed onwards to the "infamous hill", since they are likely waiting for him, and over the woman's objections ("they're completely crazy!") invites Jenkins to join him.
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