Wheat that Springeth Green
Wheat That Springeth Green is J. F. Powers's last novel. It chronicles the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of Joe Hackett, a Midwestern Catholic who becomes a priest and dreams of being a saint. Powers worked on the book for 25 years, and was 71 years old when Alfred A. Knopf published it in 1988. A New York Times review praised Powers's "eye for suburban decor and his ear for clerical idiom, American-style". The book was a finalist for the 1988 National [Book Award for Fiction]. Wheat That Springeth Green was reprinted by Pocket Books in 1990 and republished by The [New York Review of Books] in 2000.