Saint Birdie Twine has seen the rainbow in her visions. She has assured the residents of Conniption City that the worst of the flood is over and the water level is receding. Only the most sacrilegious among them would notice that the water continues to rise or imagine that their neighbors floating downstream are anything but blissfully asleep. Besides, they have more urgent matters to attend to:
Mayor Mitby Sather would like to run for higher office—governor or president or something.
Bishop Obediah Twine aspires to the Papacy. He’s not Catholic though, so he’ll have to perform a miracle or something to make God really sit up and take notice.
Mrs. Molly Haggedorn wants to run for higher ground, but she's reluctant to leave the cache of silver dollars under the floorboards of her kitchen.
Onie Mattson understands the peril, but he's in jail on a rape charge again.
Merrilee Mattson, who filed the charge against Onie at the insistence of Saint Birdie Twine, knows that he is a fine man and a loving husband. And she hopes he won't find his hanging overly unpleasant.
Miss Sympathy Jo Jacobson, nearly forty, is eager to share her maidenhood with somebody—preferably not Mitby Sather.
Constable/Jailor Hjalmar Kelliher would like to retire now that he has a wife and seven daughters to support him. But the city charter doesn't allow it.
Meanwhile the Nimi i puu up in the hills wait patiently for the spirit of The Lake That No Longer Remembers Its Name to rid their sacred valley of the trespassing demons.
Critics have compared Conniption Creek to Kurt Vonnegut, to a cross between Mark Twain's wit and a fever dream, and to a Coen Brothers Movie.
