Robert Ely

Hallelujah, Alabama! Robert Ely

Meet Richard Steick, PhD, Esquire, professor of literature and attorney-at-law in Hallelujah, Alabama, a good man who wants to do good despite feeling a bit unsteady in his own moral universe. When he discovers that a wealthy corporation has made billions over the decades off mineral rights rightfully belonging to the descendants of a group of ex-slaves--one of whom is his own former client Ninety McWilliams--the gentlemanly barrister takes tooled leather briefcase in hand and mounts the judicial ramparts. His plan will have the side benefit of stopping a scheme to store nuclear waste in a remote Alabama county. Steick's manuevering brings him into an unusual alliance with a powerful black legislator and up against moralizing Governor Sid Scroulous and assorted state bureaucrats. Along the way, he discovers the true meaning of love and happiness. Hallelujah, Alabama! is a wickedly funny and wise satire of contemporary Southern politics and culture.