New York: Crown, (1991) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's first novel (preceded by poetry and two highly acclaimed collections of short stories) set in a small midwestern town celebrating its centennial. "Honey Parrish of Divinity, Iowa, drinks too much, sleeps around and talks to her dead lover. . . .she is a woman drifting toward madness while searching for something that will anchor her to safety.. . Honey is also plagued by the voice of Clinton, her dead lover, until Jasper Johnson comes along. Johnson, the ``sweet eyes'' of the title, is the town's only black man. His tempestuous affair with Honey is the spark that fires a smoldering racism in the community, spearheaded by Sonny Boy [Honey's pyschotic brother]. Fearing that her brother's bigotry caused the death of a young black woman 15 years earlier, Honey launches a painful search for the truth." (Kirkus) A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. 404 pp.,. ISBN: 0-517575159.