The Great Work in the United States of America covers the life and times of a man or being called “Tk,” the founder, often despite himself, of a new religion which contains not a speck of Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Confucian, Sikh, Bahai’I, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventist, or Christian Scientist belief but is a successor to Spiritualism and a precursor of the New Age. He lived at least 135 years. Set mostly in 1890s Chicago, with side trips to Arkansas, Colorado, Las Vegas and the “Summer Land,” the book’s characters also include Tk’s beloved and brilliant assistant, Mrs. Florence Huntley — an opium addict who was married to three men, none named Huntley — aldermen Hinky Dink Kenna and Bathhouse John Coughlin, H.H. Holmes the mass murderer, “Tiger Balm” Wald, and a creature called the “Dream Child.”
Moving, funny, violent, historical, unique, an early version of The Great Work in the United States of America won Yale University’s Strong Prize. Of that version John Hersey wrote, “His materials are dense, adult, historical and eccentric. Mr. Drain promises to be a notable story teller.”
