The Tender Mercies of the Wicked : 9781440164286 : 22 Aug 2009 : This Great Depression-era novel is the serio-comic journey of a young boy, Ishmael Rogers, a modern-day wandering pilgrim, traveling from Oklahoma to California with only his dog, Isaac, along as a companion initially. Along the way, he meets both friends and enemies alike, and grows not only emotionally but also spiritually, based on the real-life lessons he learns on his sojourn. Young Ishmael learns that life is sometimes not fair, especially on the road from the Oklahoma dust bowl to the promised land of California, circa 1936, and that sometimes along life's highways and byways one can meet both good and evil, and sometimes those meetings come about without being given proper advanced warning.