pbKim Powers's haunting and spellbinding novel iRules for Being Deadi reads like an intoxicating blend of the best of Shirley Jackson, Alice Sebold and Fannie Flagg. --STARRED Review, iShelf Awarenessibp pIt's the late 1960s in McKinney, Texas. At the downtown theater and the local drive-in, movies--iJames Bondi, iMy Fair Ladyi, iAlfiei, and iDr. Zhivagoi--feed the dreams and obsessions of a ten-year-old Clarke who loves Audrey, Elvis, his family, and the handsome boy in the projector booth. Then Clarke loses his beloved mother, and no one will tell him how she died. No one will tell iheri either. She is floating above the trees and movie screens of McKinney, trapped between life and death, searching for a glimpse of her final moments on this earth. Clarke must find the shattering truth, which haunts this darkly humorous and incredibly moving novel.p